Donald Trump suggested Saturday night that President Joe Biden “should take a cognitive test,” but he himself confused who gave him the exam in the next sentence.
The former president and presumptive Republican nominee referred to current Texas Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson, who was White House physician for part of his presidency, as “Ronny Johnson.” The moment came when Trump was questioning Biden’s mental acuity, something he often does on the campaign trail and on social media.
“He doesn’t even know what the word ‘inflation’ means. “I think he should take a cognitive test like I did,” the former president said of Biden during a speech at a convention. Turning Point Action in Detroit. And seconds later, he continued: “Dr. Ronny Johnson. Does everyone know Ronny Johnson, congressman from Texas? “He was the White House doctor and he said I was the healthiest president in history, according to him, so I immediately liked him a lot.”
Jackson was elected to Congress in 2021 and is one of Trump’s most strident defenders on Capitol Hill.
Trump, who turned 78 on Friday, has made the question of whether Biden, 81, a candidate for a second term, a centerpiece of his campaign.. But critics quickly seized on his Saturday night gaffe, and Biden’s campaign, which has long rejected criticism of the Democratic president’s verbal gaffes, released a clip of the moment minutes later.
Trump’s cognitive test
Trump took the cognitive test in 2018 at his own request, Jackson told reporters at the time. The test is designed to detect early signs of memory loss and other mild cognitive impairments.
Trump’s Montreal Cognitive Assessment includes remembering a list of spoken words; listen to a list of random numbers and repeat them backwards; name as many words as possible that begin with, say, the letter F in one minute; accurately draw a cube; and describe concrete ways in which two objects, such as a train and a bicycle, are similar.
Trump later said he had to remember and accurately recite a list of words in order: “Person. Women. Man. Camera. TELEVISION.”
Trump’s false mockery of Biden over a video
During the same speech in Detroit, Trump also referenced a video clip widely circulated online in Republican circles showing Biden during the recently concluded Group of Seven summit in Italy watching paratroopers land with flags of different nations.
A cropped version of the video shows Biden walking away from the leaders, turning his back to them and walking in the other direction. He gives a thumbs up but it’s unclear who he’s pointing at. However, a fuller angle of the same scene shows that the president had turned to a parachutist who had landed.
However, Trump seized on the video clip and falsely described Biden turning “to look at the trees,” prompting laughter and shouts from the crowd.
The Biden campaign issued a statement dismissing the clip as deceptively cropped and accusing those who spread it of “manipulating the video to make up lies.”
Biden confuses the president of Egypt with that of Mexico while ensuring that his memory “is fine”
