Joe Biden should take the same cognitive test that President Trump recently took, the president said Wednesday during an interview with Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel.
“In a way he has an obligation to,” Trump said of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, adding that the presidency requires “stamina” and “mental health.”
Trump said he took the test to prove to the media that he was fit to serve in the presidency after reports supposedly questioned his cognitive ability. Trump has used the argument that Biden — at age 77, three years older than Trump — is too old to run for president .
The argument is a cornerstone strategy of Trump’s reelection campaign against the former vice president.
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“Because I can tell you President Xi [Jinping of China] is sharp, [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin is sharp, [Turkish President Recep] Erdogan is sharp. You don’t have any non-sharp people that you’re dealing with,” Trump told Siegel.
Trump also discussed the coronavirus pandemic, referring to the virus as “the plague,” and pointing to what he says are improving U.S. death rates.
“You see the death numbers really looking much better,” the president said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not said that mortality rates are improving; instead, it has warned that as infection rates are still on the rise, the U.S. can expect to see more deaths.
“Mortality attributed to COVID-19 decreased compared to last week but is currently above the epidemic threshold and will likely increase as additional death certificates are processed,” according to the CDC’s Key Updates, which were analyzed last week.
Trump said he had lost five, possibly six people close to him because of the coronavirus, including real estate mogul Stanley Chera, who died April 11 at age 77 due complications caused by the virus.
The president backtracked on previous remarks he had made comparing the coronavirus to the flu, saying he hasn’t ever known someone to die of the flu.
“When people like to compare it to the flu, it’s interesting because I see the flu numbers and they’re very bad, but when I look at flu numbers and I look at … I never lost anybody to the flu,” Trump said, adding: “I never remember anybody saying, ‘Well he had the flu and he died.’”
Siegel congratulated the president on the announcement that the U.S. has placed a nearly $2 billion order with pharmaceutical company Pfizer and biotech firm BioNTech for 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Trump said, given the choice, he’d rather more heavily invest in therapeutics than vaccines.
“I’d love to walk into a hospital and give everybody something and they start walking out in two days, that’s what I’d like,” Trump said. “Vaccine is very good longer term.”
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The president also said that he is positive the U.S. will beat the coronavirus, adding that eventually, the disease will “disappear.”
“I say it’s going to disappear. … I think we can knock it out before it disappears, that’s what I want,” Trump said. “With time you’re going to beat it.”
