Pharmacist GOP Rep Carter urges Biden to take cognitive test in letter to White House: ‘Fragile mental state’

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter, R-Ga., wrote a letter to the White House on Monday calling on President Biden to take a cognitive assessment over concerns about his “fragile mental state” and ability to uphold his duties.

In a letter obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, Carter, who is also a pharmacist, wrote to White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients expressing “serious concern” with Biden’s cognitive state and “ability to execute the duties of the Presidency.”

“After numerous examples of the President’s declining mental acuity, it is imperative that the White House remains transparent about the President of the United States’ honest ability to uphold the duties of the office to which he swore an oath,” Carter wrote.

This comes after a recent report from The Wall Street Journal stating that the 81-year-old president was showing signs of poor cognitive performance in private meetings with congressional lawmakers, including by closing his eyes for extended periods, speaking so softly at times that people struggled to hear him and forgetting details about his own energy policy.

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Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter, R-Ga., who is also a pharmacist, wrote a letter to the White House calling on President Biden to take a cognitive test. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

In January, Biden mixed up the names of his two Hispanic cabinet secretaries — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, according to the report. During a meeting that month with congressional leaders, the president also reportedly moved slowly around the room and started the meeting by reading from notes to make broad points about the need to provide Ukraine with additional aid despite the lawmakers in the room already supporting more funding for the country.

Biden also claimed in February he spoke at the 2021 G-7 Summit with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017, and former French President François Mitterrand, who died in 1996.

The president has also appeared to stumble – on multiple occasions – as he attempted to board Air Force One.

“As a consultant pharmacist for several decades, I have treated patients in nursing homes and recognize the signs of cognitive decline,” Carter wrote in his letter. “The patients I treated slowly experienced mental decline and forgetfulness. This includes repeatedly forgetting names and confusing prior experiences with current events – the same behaviors that the American public and congressional lawmakers have witnessed from the President of the United States.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment on Carter’s letter.

The White House has previously pushed back on criticisms of Biden’s mental acuity as politically motivated.

“Congressional Republicans, foreign leaders and nonpartisan national-security experts have made clear in their own words that President Biden is a savvy and effective leader who has a deep record of legislative accomplishment,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates told The Wall Street Journal earlier this month. “Now, in 2024, House Republicans are making false claims as a political tactic that flatly contradict previous statements made by themselves and their colleagues.”

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The White House has previously pushed back on criticisms of President Biden’s mental acuity as politically motivated. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Carter wrote that Biden, as president, must possess a strong cognitive ability when carrying out the domestic and international duties he was elected to do, noting that Americans are concerned about his mental fitness.

“The President of the United States is a position which requires strong mental awareness to protect the interests of the American people,” Carter wrote. “Throughout recent domestic and international crises, Americans are rightly concerned that the President’s fragile mental state is creating a leadership vacuum in a position that demands utmost competence.”

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Several Republicans have placed increased pressure on the president this year over his age and mental acuity ahead of November’s presidential election between Biden and former President Trump.

Trump, 78, has been criticized by Democrats for his mental acuity after also showing signs of poor memory, giving inaccurate facts and slipping up in public remarks. 

Earlier this month at a Turning Point Action event in Detroit, he called on Biden to take the same cognitive test he “aced” while confusing the name of Texas GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson, who served as his White House physician and medical adviser, and instead referred to him as “Ronny Johnson,” The Associated Press reported.

A recent report stated that President Biden was showing signs of poor cognitive performance in private meetings with congressional lawmakers. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Jackson said Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that he has sent multiple letters to the White House asking Biden to take a cognitive test, and that he will now be demanding drug tests from the president before and after the upcoming debate with Trump, citing this year’s State of the Union Address in which Biden appeared sharper than his other public appearances.

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“The American people deserve to know that the President can perform the duties of Head of State and Commander-in-Chief, and they deserve full transparency on the mental capabilities of their highest elected leader,” Carter wrote in his letter.

“That is why I encourage the President to perform a cognitive test immediately,” the letter continued. “I implore you to then publish the test results, so the American people know the full mental and intellectual health of their President. The American people can no longer be left to wonder about their safety and security because of the President’s deteriorating mental state.”