Fox News anchor Chris Wallace found himself entangled in a weird and bizarre debate with President Donald Trump over the president’s cognitive tests boasts, pointing out how easy the test is and that one of the questions merely asks the taker to identify a picture of an elephant.
Speaking to Fox News host and close confidant Sean Hannity earlier this month, the president bragged that Walter Reed doctors were “very surprised” that he recently “aced” a cognitive test, calling on former Vice President Joe Biden to take the same exam.
“They said, ‘that’s an unbelievable thing. Rarely does anybody do what you just did,’ Trump told Hannity on July 9. “But [Biden] should take that same test.”
In a tense and heated interview with Wallace that aired Sunday, Trump first complained about all the “fake polls” that have Biden dominating before taking some shots at the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s mental acuity—a favorite line of attack by Republicans and conservatives.
“Biden can’t put two sentences together,” he exclaimed. “They wheel him out. He goes up, he repeats, they ask him questions. He reads a teleprompter and then he goes back into his basement.”
Wallace, meanwhile, took that opportunity to directly ask Trump: “Is Joe Biden senile?”
Trump insisted he didn’t “want to say that” but instead would rather say “he’s not competent to be president,” adding that Biden “doesn’t even know he’s alive” while repeating his claim that the ex-veep never leaves the basement.
The Fox host, however, showed a recent Fox News poll that reveals that more Americans feel that Biden is more mentally fit than the president, prompting Trump to once again boast about his cognitive test results.
“Let’s take a test right now,” he bellowed. “Let’s go down, Joe and I will take a test. Let him take the same test that I took.”
Wallace jumped in to note that he personally took the test after Trump said he “aced” it, pointing out that “it’s not the hardest test.”
“They have a picture and it says ‘what’s that’ and it’s an elephant,” Wallace added while airing an image of the test page.
“No, no, no,” Trump shouted back. “You see, that’s all misrepresentation.”
After the veteran Fox anchor said that’s what the test shows on the web, Trump again complained that Wallace was misrepresenting the exam.
“The first few questions are easy, but I’ll bet you couldn’t even answer the last five questions,” Trump proclaimed. “I’ll bet you couldn’t, they get very hard, the last five questions.”
Wallace, for his part, explained that another question was “count back from 100 by seven,” quickly informing the president that the first step was the number 93.
“You couldn’t answer many of the questions,” an undeterred Trump continued. “I’ll get you the test, I’d like to give it. I’ll guarantee you that Joe Biden could not answer those questions. I answered all 35 questions correctly!”
