Biden assistants decided at the beginning of 2024 to a cognitive test, says Book

Months before President Joseph R. Biden Jr. wax forced to leave his re -election campaignHis top white assistants debated that he would undergo a cognitive test to prove his fitness for a second term, but eventually decided against the move, according to a coming book.

The report illustrates the extent to which the best assistants of Mr. Biden Deep fears cherished about how voters viewed his age and mental sharpness. The book, “2024: How Trump who has taken over the White House and Democrats Lost America”, by Tyler Pager from the New York Times, Josh Dawsey of the Wall Street Journal and Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post, will be released in July.

Mr Biden’s assistants were convinced that, according to the book, he would pass a cognitive test, but they were worried that the mere fact that he would raise a new questions about his mental skills. At the same time, the old doctor of Mr Biden, Kevin O’Connor, had told assistants that he would not consider the political status of the 81-year-old president to treat him.

The discussion took place in February 2024, a few weeks before Mr. Bides Last white house physical examination and a period prior to a part of him Most harmful public episodes.

A representative for Mr Biden refused to comment.

The same month that Biden Assistants considered the cognitive test, Robert K. Hur, the special counselor who investigated the handling of Mr Biden of classified documents, released a report that is concluded That the president “was a sympathetic, well -meaning, older man with a bad memory.” Mr. Bides kept a press conference in the late night To give an angry reaction in which he referred to the president of Egypt as the president of Mexico and stated: “My memory is fine.”

By that time it became clear that former President Donald J. Trump would be the Republican nominee. Mr. Trump, three years younger than Mr Biden, had scooped up during his first term about achieving a cognitive testAlthough details were sketchy. His repetition of a series of five words that he was asked to remember-“person, woman, man, camera, TV”-a current joke in political circles in Washington in 2020.

During the presidency of Mr Biden and especially during his re -election, his assistants and advisers often argued that the news media were unfair in how it covered his age, so that the negative perception of the voters of his strength was fueled. Few influential figures in the White House or on his campaign would entertain the idea that he had trouble performing his presidential duties.

“I thought about the subject of his age that the best answer would be performance,” Mike Donilon, a senior adviser from Mr. Biden Die Had worked for him Since the 1980s, the Harvard Political Review told in March. “Every day I kept seeing him doing the work. I still think he is the best person to become president today.”

But outside the sleek inner circle of Mr. Biden, many democratic politicians and strategists started to worry quietly when his re -election offered. By June 2022, Democrats talked about his potential to drag the 2024 ticket, with many who suggest that he should not run anymore.

A Article in the New York Times That month included an interview with David Axelrod, the former adviser of President Barack Obama, who became one of the older statesmen of the party.

Mr Axelrod said that Mr Biden “sees his age” – then 79 – and that he nourished a story that he was no longer on the task of becoming president.

“The grim reality is that the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a big problem,” said Mr Axelrod.

That remark led to an angry call to Mr Axelrod by Ron Klain, then the Chief of Staff of Mr. Biden, according to the book. Mr. Klain wanted to know why Mr Axelrod fed doubts about a democratic president on his way to start a re -election campaign.

“There is no Obama outside, Axe,” Mr. Klain told him, the book tells. “Who will do it if he doesn’t do it?”