White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre clarified after last Thursday’s debate that President Biden does not suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or any form of dementia.
“Does President Biden, who is 81 years old, have Alzheimer’s or some type of dementia or degenerative disease that would cause him to make a gaffe like this? That’s a yes or no question,” a reporter asked Jean-Pierre on Tuesday afternoon.
“Are you ready? The answer is no, and I hope you’re asking another person that exact same question,” Jean-Pierre replied, referring to former President Trump.
Tuesday’s press conference was Biden’s first since his performance in last week’s debate, which raised concerns about Biden’s age and mental health and prompted calls among Democrats and traditional media for him to drop out of the presidential race. Biden was widely criticized for appearing slow and weak in his confrontation with Trump, stumbling over his words, occasionally stuttering and speaking in a raspy voice.
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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images/File)
Concerns about the president’s mental health have been rife for years and have intensified in recent months after special counsel Robert Hur’s report described Biden as a “caring, well-intentioned elderly man with a fragile memory.”
Last month, the White House dismissed as “cheap fakes” repeated recorded instances of Biden’s gaffes and missteps in public, including a video that showed the president standing nearly motionless during a Juneteenth concert event at the White House.
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Speaking at a White House press conference, Jean-Pierre stressed that the administration had no regrets about promoting a cheap fake story, defined by the White House as a real video that has been cropped or edited in an allegedly deceptive way, even after the debate sparked widespread concerns about the president’s intellectual capacity, especially among his more traditional left-leaning allies.
President Biden attends the Juneteenth celebration at the White House. (Fox News/Pool)
“Totally, totally,” she said when Fox News reporter Jackie Heinrich asked if the administration regretted using the term, “… independent mainstream fact-checkers and misinformation experts in the news media have been calling out cheap fake news. And at the end of the day, they are fake news. And that’s what was being aimed at the president. Reporters and misinformation experts said the president was being targeted. And we went along with them. That’s what we did. And we will certainly continue to call that out.”
Jean-Pierre pointed out that he did not coin the phrase, but that it was something the administration picked up from the media.
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“It came from the media. They called it a cheap fake. And they said this president, President Biden, was being targeted with misinformation. And it was done intentionally against this president. And we did it again and again. So I have no regrets at all. It was just a fact.”
President Biden debates former President Trump at CNN studios in Atlanta on June 27, 2024. (Andrew Caballero Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump campaign He called for an apology for the phrase last week, arguing after Biden’s debate performance that “everyone knows Biden’s decline is not fake.”
“The Biden administration and the entire Democratic Party are directly involved in the largest cover-up in the history of American politics, and the mainstream media is complicit in lying to the American people about Joe Biden’s mental state,” Caroline Leavitt, national spokesperson for the Trump campaign, told Fox News Digital last week. “They owe an apology not only to our campaign, but more importantly to the American people, for this massive scandal that has led to the decline of our country over the past four years.”
Most of the questions Jean-Pierre received on Tuesday afternoon were about Biden’s mental and physical health, and he stressed that Biden and his allies, including former President Barack Obama, have noted that while the debate did not go well for the president, he is “fighting” for the American people.
“Is there anyone in the White House hiding information about the president’s health and his ability to perform his day-to-day duties?” a reporter asked Jean-Pierre.
“Absolutely not,” she replied.
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“Did the president see a doctor or have a neurological scan after the debate?” another reporter asked.
“Neurologic scans? Well, all I can say is, looking back a little bit, it was a bad night. It was a bad night, and we understand, and the president has spoken about it, and he understands,” she replied.
President Biden and former President Trump debate in Atlanta. (Getty Images)
Jean-Pierre told reporters at a news conference that the administration has been “transparent” about the president’s health history and has released a comprehensive health report of Biden’s annual medical exam.
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The press conference came on the same day that Texas Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett called on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, marking the first time a Democratic official has called on the president to withdraw.
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President Biden speaks at a post-debate rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on June 28, 2024. (Alison Joyce/Getty Images)
“President Biden continues to trail well behind Democratic senators in key states and also behind Donald Trump in most polls. There was hope that the debate would bring momentum that would change that, but it did not happen. Instead of reassuring voters, the president failed to effectively defend many of his accomplishments and expose many of Trump’s lies,” Doggett said.
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Traditional media outlets such as the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune published opinion pieces after the debate calling on Biden to drop out of the race, and former public officials and traditional allies of the party have made similar statements.
