CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, expressed concerns about President Joe Biden’s performance in the June 27 debate, suggesting he should undergo detailed cognitive and movement disorder testing.
In a piece for CNN, the neurosurgeon noted that he and over a dozen colleagues were worried about Biden’s apparent confused rambling, sudden loss of concentration, halting speech, and lack of facial animation, which sometimes resulted in a flat, open-mouthed expression. Gupta clarified that these were observations rather than diagnoses but stressed the need for further testing.
“To be clear, these are only observations, not in any way diagnostic of something deeper, and none of these doctors wished to suggest that was the case,” Gupta added.
“The consensus from the doctors reaching out to me, however, was that the president should be encouraged to undergo detailed cognitive and movement disorder testing, and those results should be made available to the public,” he wrote.
In a CNN interview, Gupta remarked that while some of Biden’s issues were not new, they seemed more sustained and pronounced during the debate, prompting his call for an essay.
He listed slow response times, word retrieval issues, rambling speech, reduced voice volume, and diminished facial movements as potential signs of a problem for the 81-year-old president. One notable instance was Biden’s incoherent answer about health care, concluding with, “We finally beat Medicare.”
BIDEN: "…with the COVID.. excuse me.. dealing with.. everything we have to do with.. look.. if… we finally beat, Medicare."
TRUMP: "He's right. He did beat Medicare. He's destroying Medicare." pic.twitter.com/jgVCpXUhWZ
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) June 28, 2024
