President Trump on Sunday questioned former Vice President Joe Biden’s mental state, challenging him to take the same cognitive test he has taken.
Trump took the test, known as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, in 2018. He later said that his doctor said he “aced” it.
“Let’s take a test right now. Let’s go down, Joe and I will take a test. Let him take the same test that I took,” Trump said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Host Chris Wallace said the test is not difficult.
“It’s not – well it’s not the hardest test,” Wallace said. “They have a picture and it says ‘what’s that’ and it’s an elephant.”
“No, no, no,” Trump said, calling Wallace’s dismissal “a misrepresentation.”
“It’s all misrepresentation,” Trump said. “Because, yes, the first few questions are easy, but I’ll bet you couldn’t even answer the last five questions. I’ll bet you couldn’t, they get very hard, the last five questions.”
“Well, one of them was count back from 100 by seven,” Wallace said, then he began to do so: “Ninety-three.”
Trump broke in, saying: “You couldn’t answer — you couldn’t answer many of the questions,” Trump said, adding he answered all 35 questions correctly.
“I’ll get you the test, I’d like to give it. I’ll guarantee you that Joe Biden could not answer those questions,” Trump said.
Earlier this month, Biden pushed back on the notion that he is losing his mental acuity, telling reporters he is “constantly tested” for evidence of cognitive decline.
“Some have speculated that you are subject to some degree of cognitive decline,” Fox News’ Doug McKelway said. “I’m 65, I don’t have word recollection that I used to have, I forgot my train of thought from time to time. You got 12 years on me, sir. Have you been tested for some degree of cognitive decline?”
“I’ve been tested and I’m constantly tested,” Biden said. “Look, all you 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.”
A recent Zogby International poll of 1,007 “likely voters” found that 55% said they think the former vice president “is in the early stages of dementia.”
“Overall, subgroups who normally approve of Trump’s job as president were the most likely to believe Biden could be suffering from dementia,” the poll found. “Thus, majorities of Republicans (77% more likely/23% less likely) and Independents (56% more likely/44% less likely) thought Joe Biden had early-onset dementia; while nearly a third of Democrats (32% more likely/68% less likely) thought this was the case.”
“At the same time, some important subgroups did not believe the vice president was exhibiting a declining mental capacity. While a majority of men (60% more likely/40% less likely) thought it this was likely, women (50% more likely/50% less likely) were less likely to think that the vice president was in the early stages of dementia,” Zogby International wrote.
But a recent Fox News poll showed that 47% of those who responded believe Biden has the mental soundness needed to be president; 43% said the same about Trump.