Following Joe Biden’s presidential debate, discussions have surged about his overall fitness to continue in office. The debate which was marked by moments where the president struggled with response times and coherence, has fueled these concerns over Biden’s cognitive capabilities. Growing problems have led to calls from various quarters for Biden to either step down or undergo thorough health evaluations.
CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, pointed out troubling behaviors exhibited by the president. “If you take a look, slow response time, I think we saw that sort of in a sustained fashion. Definitive word retrieval mix-ups, rambling, sometimes confused speech, reduced voice volume as well, and reduced facial movements.”
He continued, “these things can all be connected. We often think of cognition simply being memory, but if someone has an underlying movement disorder, for example, that can actually affect cognition in the sense that people may have more flattened affect, face, and not really be speaking as quickly or as loudly.”
The White House responded to these concerns by suggesting that the president’s debate performance issues were due to temporary factors such as jet lag and a cold. However, Dr. Gupta countered this explanation by stressing the need for a comprehensive assessment to determine whether the observed issues were episodic or indicative of a deeper, more persistent condition.
He also drew comparisons between the current administration’s transparency regarding Biden’s health and past practices, notably pointing out that former President Donald Trump underwent the Montreal Cognitive Assessment twice, details of which were made public. “We were told President Trump has had that done twice. It did not appear, at least, in the medical records that President Biden had that done.”
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Meanwhile members of the Biden administration have been anonymously revolting to the press, comparing the workplace to the famous comedy “Weekend at Bernie’s” about a family that pretends to keep their dead uncle alive through a getaway weekend.
Axios scooped the staffers’ admissions, which offered assessments about their boss’s chances in November and where they think his top advisors went wrong. “Everyone is miserable, and senior advisers are a total black hole,” a White House official told the outlet. “Even if you’re trying to focus on work, nothing is going to break through or get any acknowledgment” from bosses. A high-ranking official at the Democratic National Committee added, “The only thing that can really allay concerns is for the president to demonstrate that he’s capable of running this campaign.”
Trump has gained a significant lead in the presidential race following Biden’s problematic debate according to a recent poll by The New York Times and Siena College. The poll indicates that Trump now leads Biden by 49 percent to 43 percent among likely voters nationally, marking a three-point increase in Trump’s favor since just before the debate. This is the most substantial lead Trump has achieved in a Times/Siena poll since 2015. Among registered voters, Trump’s lead is even more pronounced, at 49 percent to 41 percent.
According to the poll, a majority of every demographic, geographic, and ideological group, including Black voters and those who intend to vote for him, see the 81-year-old president as too old to effectively perform his duties. Overall, 74 percent of voters now see him as too old for the presidency, a significant increase of five percentage points since last week’s debate.
Among Democrats, concerns about Biden’s age have surged by eight percentage points in the week following the debate, now affecting 59 percent of Democratic voters. The sentiment among independent voters is even stronger, with 79 percent expressing concerns about Biden’s age, a figure that nearly aligns with Republican perspectives.
Just when you think the creepy old man can’t get any weirder… he does.
(@marktmt) 
