President Joe Biden needs to undergo a mental and physical health check because his condition has obviously deteriorated over the past year, the majority of likely voters revealed in an exclusive DailyMail.com poll.
A staggering seven in ten respondents said the president should take a cognitive test after the 81-year-old overwhelmingly worried voters, politicians and pundits with his disastrous Atlanta presidential debate against Donald Trump.
The poll of 1,000 likely voters, conducted days after the debate, also found that 70 percent think Biden should also undergo another general physical exam.
Biden attributed his poor performance last week in part to being sick with a cold, which the White House said he contracted during his international trip 19 days ago.
Major questions loom over the commander-in-chief’s health, prompting a flurry of meetings among Democrats concerned about his prospects in November, including the question of whether Biden should be replaced at the head of the party’s ticket.
More than 70 percent of likely voters believe President Joe Biden should take a cognitive test, according to an exclusive DailyMail.com poll conducted after the debate
The White House, seemingly trying to catch up with comments made by the president, finally confirmed Thursday that Biden saw a doctor after his shaky debate performance but claimed it was only to get that cold under control, which aides said was the cause of his hoarse voice during the CNN event.
“Several days later, the President was seen to check on his cold and was recovering well,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates told DailyMail.com on July 4. There is no indication, though, that he underwent a more extensive series of tests.
The announcement of the medical check-up was a retraction of an earlier claim made by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre just a day earlier, when asked by DailyMail.com if she had seen a doctor for her persistent cold.
He then said that Biden had not been to a doctor since contracting his illness, which lasted several weeks.
“He still has a lingering cold,” he said repeatedly during the nearly hourlong news conference that focused almost exclusively on questions about Biden’s ability to continue running for reelection.
He also said the octogenarian president, aside from the recent checkup, has not had a medical exam since his annual physical in February.
Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, is traveling with him. Reporters saw him at the president’s villa in Italy last month. O’Connor also traveled with Biden to the debate in Atlanta.
Immediately after the debate, Democrats began expressing concerns about Biden’s age and mental acuity.
The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (above) is widely used to assess patients with neurodegenerative diseases.
Additionally, DailyMail.com’s exclusive poll shows that 60 percent of likely voters believe the president’s health has worsened noticeably since the start of the year.
Of the 1,000 likely voters, only 18 percent disagree that things have gotten worse.
And 55 percent believe Biden has declined in the past month, the poll shows.
“The only option for the White House now, if they want Biden to stay in office, is full transparency,” said pollster James Johnson, who conducted the Mail survey.
“If Biden really doesn’t have an age problem, then they need to show everything they can to try to reassure voters about that, including with medical evidence.”
“Even then, it appears voters have already decided that Biden is unfit to govern,” he added.
Most likely voters said Joe Biden’s health has worsened noticeably over the past year and month.
The widespread panic over the president’s fitness after the debate has been complemented by a flood of online video content showing a stumbling Biden.
Two in three voters told the Daily Mail they had seen embarrassing viral videos of Joe on social media.
Those videos show Biden stumbling, looking confused or distorting his words.
A widely circulated clip showed the president walking away as he looked skyward at a D-Day ceremony in France.
Another clip shows the president wide-eyed and motionless as he is joined by his dancing vice president and other White House guests at a Juneteenth ceremony.
Videos like that have been seen as hostile towards the president, with Jean-Pierre calling them “cheap fakes” and misleading editing.
Earlier this week, former White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci hesitated when asked if he was alarmed by Biden’s condition at the debate.
“You know, I can’t say,” he said in an interview with CBS.
“I think that would be inappropriate to say, Major, because when you just look at somebody in isolation, you just don’t know what could happen,” Fauci said.
The doctor suggested, however, that antihistamines used to treat cold and flu may have contributed to Biden’s drowsy performance.
“Did he have a bad cold? Did he take an antihistamine to make him feel groggy or something? We don’t know what happened,” Fauci continued.
Despite concerns about his cognitive and physical health and his poor performance in debates, Democrats who have met with the president in recent days have formed a united front in support of the elder Biden.
A group of Democratic governors from across the country met with Biden on Wednesday night to express their concerns and hear his arguments for why he should remain at the top of the party ticket.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the current head of the Democratic Governors Association, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul were on hand to address reporters after the meeting that was scheduled following Biden’s debate disaster.
“We always believe that when you love someone, you tell them the truth,” Moore said.
“We know we have work to do,” he added. “We know that, being here, we are behind schedule.”
“But we also know that the path to ensuring that we can get through this in November is real.”
“The president kept telling us and showing us that he was fully committed,” the Maryland native continued. “Then we told him that we would support him.”