Voters may be concerned by President Joe Biden’s age, but one Republican lawmaker appears to have taken the story a little too far.
Speaking with Fox Business’s Cheryl Casone on Monday, Senator Roger Marshall suggested that Biden’s choice of footwear could be a sign that the chief executive has developed Parkinson’s disease, a nervous system disorder that results in tremors in a person’s hands and feet.
“People have taken a good look at the fact that he used to wear dress shoes,” said Casone. “Now he wears those tennis shoes. Does this all factor into what you’re hearing and seeing?”
Marshall quickly agreed. “Exactly, first of all, there’s several different types of Parkinson’s,” he said. “Some of them have a bigger impact on his cognitive abilities than other types of Parkinson’s do. So, again, if there’s nothing to hide, then the president should do a cognitive test.”
“My guess is he has done one. Certainly, they’ve done a neurological examination. That would be part of an annual examination.… I guarantee you that this Parkinson’s disease doctor that showed up did an in-depth neurological exam—and America deserves to know,” Marshall continued. “Again, I don’t know if the president has Parkinson’s or not, but we’re concerned about it. And four years is a long time.”
Sen. Roger Marshall and Fox Business try to diagnose Biden with Parkinson's based on the shoes he wears pic.twitter.com/qES95BqMfq
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 8, 2024
To make the argument, the Kansas senator fell back on his medical expertise as a former ob-gyn, a specialty that has practically zero medical crossover with diagnosing a neurological illness such as Parkinson’s.
Biden, meanwhile, rejected the notion that he should be subject to a cognitive test during his high-profile one-on-one interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday, arguing instead that the daily grind of the presidency is testing enough.
“I have a cognitive test every single day,” Biden said. “Everything I do. Not only am I campaigning, I am running the world.”
But Marshall did let one detail slip in his closing comments on Biden’s health: The conservative lawmaker believes that Vice President Kamala Harris has a future running the Oval Office.
“Any way you look at this, I think we end up with Kamala Harris as the president, either going into the future or the nominee now,” Marshall said.
