Former President Barack Obama delivered a rebuke to a former White House doctor who was among the first to publicly question President Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities while Biden was still running for the Oval Office, according to a new report.
A June poll showed 59 percent of Americans worried about Biden’s mental health, according to Breitbart, and the issue of Biden’s competence has emerged in the discussion of a possible second term for Biden, the New York Post reported Sunday.
But all that was still in the future during the 2020 campaign when former White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson, who was then running for a seat in Congress, was listening to Biden’s campaign utterances.
In his memoir “Holding the Line: A Lifetime of Defending Democracy and American Values,” Jackson, who served as a White House doctor to Obama, as well as former Presidents Donald Trump and George W. Bush, recalls what took place, according to Fox News.
“Biden was on TV again, making crazy statements and concerning mental gaffes; he didn’t know what state he was in or what office he was campaigning for,” wrote Jackson, a Republican and retired Navy rear admiral.
“He apparently thought at one point that he was running for the Senate and later couldn’t remember what state he was campaigning in. This had been going on for months and was getting worse,” he wrote.
Jackson recalled how Trump was treated by the mainstream media.
“Trump never made crazy statements like the ones Biden was making almost every day, but these people were jumping up and down: ‘He’s not fit to be president; he needs a cognitive test!’” he wrote.
Jackson gave Trump a cognitive test that Trump passed with flying colors.
Finally, Jackson had enough.
He retweeted a video of Biden’s “latest cognitive misadventure” with the message: “Remember the cognitive test that I gave @realDonaldTrump? The one he aced! Sounds like somebody else might need some testing done!! Scary!!”
Remember the cognitive test I gave @realDonaldTrump? The one he aced! Sounds like somebody else might need some testing done!! Scary!! https://t.co/MhantZoHIy
— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) February 25, 2020
Twenty minutes after the tweet was posted, Jackson wrote, Obama delivered a scolding.
“I have made a point of not commenting on your service in my successor’s administration and have always spoken highly of you both in public and in private. You always served me and my family well, and I have considered you not only a fine doctor and service member but also a friend,” Obama wrote in the email, according to Jackson.
“That’s why I have to express my disappointment at the cheap shot you took at Joe Biden via Twitter. It was unprofessional and beneath the office that you once held. It was also disrespectful to me and the many friends you had in our administration,” Obama wrote.
“You were the personal physician to the President of the United States as well as an admiral in the U.S. Navy. I expect better, and I hope upon reflection that you will expect more of yourself in the future,” Obama wrote.
Fox News noted that Obama did not reply to a request for comment on Jackson’s version of events.
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Jackson, who now represents Texas’ 13th Congressional District, wrote that he considered calling Obama, but talked the issue through with conservative commentator Dan Bongino. Obama, Bongino reminded him, had done nothing to help Jackson win Senate confirmation when Trump nominated him to be secretary of veterans affairs. (The nomination ran into trouble and Jackson eventually withdrew from consideration.)
“So, upon reflection, I thought, You know what? Screw that guy! I’m not doing it,” Jackson wrote. “I just walked away from it, which was the last time I had any contact with [Obama].”
In a comment to Fox News, Jackson said the chiding from Obama was “awfully ironic now, considering [Biden’s mental fitness] is all anyone, including the liberal media, can talk about.”
“Let it be known, as the White House physician for the last three presidents, I was the first to say that we have a serious problem with this man’s cognitive demise, and he will not make it four years in office,” he said.
“I’ve always said there would come a point where it wouldn’t be just me talking about it, but his own party, and sadly, that has proven to be the case. Joe Biden’s cognitive failures are on full display for the whole world to see,” Jackson said.
Jackson’s book is scheduled to be published July 26.
