In the debate over how President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are aging, two experts agree: "It's a tale of two brains."
Dr. Harry Segal and Dr. John Gartner, both longtime psychology experts, came to the conclusion Friday on their podcast "Shrinking Trump."
Contrary to what MAGA world would have many believe following Biden's disastrous debate performance in Atlanta, Segal started the show off by throwing a curveball: It's Trump who has shown early signs of dementia, Segal said, citing Trump's language, tangential thinking, and physical gait.
Furthermore — and perhaps even more alarmingly — "Trump suffers from what we can observe as a severe personality disorder often called malignant narcissism," Segal said.
It's this disorder that leads to Trump's "chronic pathological lying," "immoral behavior," and criminal misconduct. Trump was indicted on election-related charges in several states and convicted in New York earlier this year for falsifying business records in a hush-money scheme.
Gartner has argued that Biden had a normally-aging brain, while Trump had a "dementing brain." That came into question, however, following Biden's debate struggles in which he appeared to freeze, fumble, and otherwise fail to make his points.
"It left me wondering and others, 'How is Biden really doing?'" asked Segal.
Initially following the debate, he thought it could be linked to "trauma."
"But when we looked carefully at that debate, Biden's responses were better than they sounded when you read them — and Trump's responses were much worse than they sounded when you read them."
Segal offered a model that he believes may explain Biden.
"Biden has been an extremely active president. Two wars in the world. Negotiating incredible victories in Congress, handling any number of things. And I think over the past year or so, he's been assuming that of course he'll beat Donald Trump because he's a good president," Segal said.
But perhaps, he was a tad overconfident.
"This happens to a lot of incumbents before their first debate after at the end of their first term," Segal noted. "This is not unusual. "That's why they often fail their first debate. So I believe what happened was Biden really wasn't campaigning yet — he was being president. And he showed up at the debate being president."
Furthermore, Segal said it's entirely possible that the 81-year-old Biden was simply telling the truth when he told ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos about his debate performance: "I was exhausted. I didn't listen to my instincts in terms of preparing and -- and a bad night."
Segal said that Biden is extremely experienced and has shown he's in control of setting policy for three years, but that as he's aging, "he is starting to have periods where he is exhausted."
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"When he begins to get tired, he mangles his words," said Segal. "He can't organize his thoughts. At the end of the day he tells staff that's it for today, let's do it tomorrow."
Even still, he believes Americans are still getting a high-functioning Biden 80 percent to 90 percent of the time.
Gartner agreed with Segal, calling the debate a "shock" and that information from those close to Biden reinforced that it might not simply be a bad night — it could be that he really does have trouble at night articulating his words, and that sometimes, "it's time for him to rest."
"That's what happens when you get old. It does not mean you are not competent."
Gartner said they had a scientist come on the show and provide ample evidence in charts and data that Trump is showing "demented speech on a regular basis."
Biden, however, is not.
"Biden is showing more signs of aging. The quiet voice, the raspy voice. The coughing. That was part of what disconcerted people during the debate."
