President Joe Biden has challenged critics to run against him as he faces continued calls to drop out of the presidential race – and numerous visits from a Parkinson’s doctor have been revealed.
Biden put out the dare to fellow Democrats doubting his fitness on the same day that a Parkinson’s expert’s eight visits to the White House within eight months became widely reported.
Dr Kevin Cannard, a neurologist from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, made the visits from August to March and met with Biden’s physician at least once, according to White House visitor logs.
Also on Monday, Biden called into MSNBC’s Morning Joe show to slam ‘elites’ within his own party calling for him to step aside ahead of the Democratic National Convention next month.
‘If any of these guys don’t think I should run, run against me. Go ahead. Announce for president – challenge me at the convention,’ said Biden, referring to the meeting in which the Democratic Party is expected to announce its nominee for president.
Biden added that ‘it drives me nuts people are talking about this’.
‘The bottom line here is, we’re not going anywhere. I’m not going anywhere,’ he insisted.
Biden had just penned a letter to congressional Democrats stating, ‘I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024.’
Grilled over the visitor logs showing the Parkinson’s specialist’s visits, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not say who Cannard was meeting with and why he visited an average of once a month.
Jean-Pierre echoed White House spokesman Andrew Bates’ statement that Biden ‘has been seen by a neurologist once a year’ for his annual physical.
‘It doesn’t matter how hard you push me, it doesn’t matter how angry you get with me, I’m not going to confirm a name. It doesn’t matter if it’s even in the log,’ Jean-Pierre told a reporter.
‘I’m not going to do that from here. What I can share with you is the president has seen a neurologist for his physical three times.’
An increasing number of politicians and voters have called for Biden to take a cognitive test since his disastrous debate against Trump a week-and-a-half ago.
In his first sit-down interview since the debate, Biden was asked on Friday by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos if he would take a cognitive test to ease doubters.
‘I have a cognitive test every single day,’ replied Biden, and did not answer the question directly.
‘Not only am I campaigning, I’m running the world.’
Some doctors have said that a cognitive test alone would not be able to determine Biden’s capability to serve another term.
‘The test is fairly easy to do for someone with a high level of education and no or even mild impairment,’ Dr Kenneth Boockvar, who is director of the Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday.
‘It’s only a screening test. It’s not really diagnostic.’
Dr Charan Ranganath, who is director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California, Davis, said evaluating an individual based on a cognitive comes with two challenges.
‘One is to take these kinds of tests and say something meaningful with them. But the other challenge is what does it take to do the job?’ Ranganath told the newspaper. ‘What do we expect our people to do?’
As Biden remains defiant, two Democrats are reportedly circulating a proposal for Biden to exit the race and for the the party to launch a ‘blitz primary’ to select a new nominee before the convention begins on August 19.
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