In his first press conference since the beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the US, former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for the November election, Joe Biden, said on Tuesday that he “can hardly wait” to compare his cognitive ability to that of President Donald Trump.
“I’ve been tested, I’m constantly tested,” Biden said in response to a reporter's question on whether he has been tested for cognitive decline. “Look, all you’ve got to do is watch me and I can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man I’m running against.”
Trump and his re-election campaign have repeatedly questioned Biden’s mental fitness, with the president claiming that the Democratic nominee “doesn't know where he is, or what he's doing”.
In May, the Trump campaign launched a so-called investigative video series titled ‘Truth over Facts’, mocking the 77-year-old presidential nominee, expected to be the oldest US president ever sworn in for a first term in office if he wins the November election, by highlighting his verbal gaffes as evidence of a cognitive decline.
Biden, during a press conference in Wilmington, Delaware, questioned Trump’s mental fitness, citing the president’s denial of any knowledge of intelligence reports indicating that Russia allegedly offered reward money to Taliban militants for killing American soldiers in Afghanistan.
“This president […] he talks about cognitive ability. He doesn’t seem cognitively aware of what’s going on,” Biden noted. “He either reads and or gets briefed on important issues and he forgets it, or he doesn’t think it’s necessary that he needs to know it.”
Social media users reacted to Biden’s willingness to compare his intellectual abilities to that of Trump, with some suggesting they “can’t wait for the cognitive ability test” between the two.
Some netizens mocked Biden's remarks, with one questioning whether the former VP “had a cognitive test done by a geriatric Alzheimer Specialist”.