White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked point-blank if President Joe Biden is suffering from Alzheimer’s or any form of dementia after last Thursday’s disastrous debate.
“Does President Biden, at 81 years old, have Alzheimer’s, any form of dementia or degenerative illness that causes these sorts of lapses? And it’s a yes or no question,” a reporter asked Jean-Pierre Tuesday afternoon.
“Are you ready for it? It’s now. And I hope you’re asking the other guy the same exact question,” Jean-Pierre responded, referring to former President Donald Trump.
The Tuesday press briefing marked the first since the president’s disastrous debate performance last week, which prompted calls among legacy media outlets and Democrats that the president should drop out of the election over increasing concerns over his mental acuity and age. The American and worldwide audience watched President Biden tripping over his words during the debate, losing his train of thought occasionally, responding with a raspy voice, and being slammed for having a weak, slow demeanor while facing off against Trump.
Concerns over Biden’s mental fitness have circulated for several years, heightened recently after Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report described the president as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Last month, the WH dismissed frequently recorded instances of Biden’s miscues or gaffes during public events as “cheap fakes,” like the viral video that showed the president standing frozen and motionless during a Juneteenth concert event at the White House.
Jean-Pierre doubled down during the press briefing that the administration has no regrets over its promotion of the cheap-fake narrative — despite the debate sparking broad concern over the president’s mental acuity, particularly among traditional far-left allies. Under the White House’s definition, cheap fakes are understood as real videos edited or cropped in an allegedly deceptive manner.
“Not at all, not at all,” Jean-Pierre answered when Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich asked if the administration regretted using the terminology. “…independent, mainstream fact-checkers in the press and misinformation experts have been calling out cheap fakes. And at the end of the day, they’re fakes. That’s what they were — targeting the president. They have said the reporters and these misinformation experts said that the president was being targeted. And what we did was echo them. That’s what we did. And look, we’ll certainly continue to call that out.”
Jean-Pierre noted she didn’t coin the phrase, and the administration borrowed the phrase from the media. “That came from the media. They called it cheap fakes. And they said this president, President Biden, was being targeted on misinformation. It was purposefully being done to this president. And what we did is we echoed that. So, I don’t regret it at all. It was just the facts.”
Trump’s campaign called for an apology for the phrase
Last week, the Trump campaign called for an apology over the phrase, arguing that after the president’s performance in the debate, “everyone sees there’s NOTHING fake about Biden’s decline.”
“The Biden White House and the entire Democrat Party are both directly implicated in the greatest coverup in U.S. political history — and the mainstream media is complicit in their lies to the American public about Joe Biden’s mental state. They owe an apology not just to our campaign but, more importantly, to the American people for this major scandal that has led to the demise of our country over the past four years,” said Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt last week.
Jean-Pierre fielded questions Tuesday afternoon, which primarily revolved around the president’s physical and mental health. The press secretary emphasized that Biden and his allies, like former President Barack Obama, have noted that the debate didn’t go well for the president but that he’s “fighting” for the American people.
“Is anyone in the White House hiding information about the president’s health or his ability to do the job day to day?” one reporter asked Jean-Pierre. “Absolutely not,” the press secretary answered.
“After the debate, did the president get examined by a doctor, or did he get a neurological scan?” asked another reporter.
“A neurological scan? Look, I can say that, just to take a step back, it was a bad night. We understand that it was a bad night, and the president has spoken to this and understands that,” Jean-Pierre responded.
The press secretary continued in the press briefing that the administration has been “transparent” regarding the president’s health history, saying they have released comprehensive medical reports for Biden’s annual exams.
The press conference came the same day that Democrat Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas called on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race. This marked the first time an elected Democratic official had called on the president to withdraw.
“President Biden has continued to run substantially behind Democratic senators in key states and in most polls has trailed Donald Trump. I had hoped that the debate would provide some momentum to change that. It did not. Instead of reassuring voters, the president failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies,” said Doggett.
Legacy media outlets, like the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times, published opinion pieces calling on Joe Biden to bow out of the race after the debate. At the same time, former elected officials, along with other more traditional allies of the party, have made similar remarks.
