White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre answered point-blank that President Biden does not suffer from Alzheimer’s or any form of dementia in the wake of last Thursday’s debate.

‘Does President Biden, at 81 years old, have Alzheimer’s, any form of dementia or degenerative illness that cause these sorts of lapses? And it’s a yes or no question,’ a reporter asked Jean-Pierre on Tuesday afternoon.

‘Are you ready for it? It’s a no. And I hope you’re asking the other guy the same exact question,’ Jean-Pierre responded, referring to former President Trump.

Tuesday’s press briefing marked the first since Biden’s debate performance last week that sparked calls among Democrats and legacy media outlets that the president should drop out of the election over mounting concerns over his age and mental acuity. Biden was seen tripping over his words during the debate, losing his train of thought at times, responding with a raspy voice, and he was overall slammed for having a slow and weak demeanor while squaring off against Trump.

Concerns over the president’s mental fitness have circulated for years, heightening in recent months after Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report described Biden as ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’ 

Last month, the White House dismissed repeated recorded instances of Biden’s gaffes or miscues during public events as ‘cheap fakes,’ such as the viral video showing the president standing relatively motionless during a Juneteenth concert event at the White House. 

Jean-Pierre doubled down during the White House press briefing that the administration has no regrets over promoting the cheap fake narrative, even after the debate sparked widespread concern over the president’s mental acuity, most notably among traditional left-wing allies. Cheap fakes, under the White House’s definition, are understood as real videos that are cropped or edited in an allegedly deceptive manner.

‘Not at all, not at all,’ she answered when Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich asked if the administration regretted using the terminology. ‘… Independent, mainstream fact-checkers in the press and misinformation experts have been calling out cheap fakes. And at the end of the day, they’re fakes. That’s what they were – targeting the president. They have said, the reporters and these misinformation experts, said that this president was being targeted. And what we did was echo them. That’s what we did. And look, we’ll certainly continue to call that out.’

Jean-Pierre noted that she did not coin the phrase and that the administration took the phrase from the media.

‘That came from the media. They called it cheap fakes. And they said this president, President Biden, was being targeted on misinformation. It was purposefully being done to this president. And what we did is we echoed that. So, I don’t regret it at all. It was just the facts.’ 

The Trump campaign called for an apology over the phrase last week, arguing that after Biden’s debate performance ‘everyone sees there’s NOTHING fake about Biden’s decline.’

‘The Biden White House and entire Democrat Party are both directly implicated in the greatest coverup (sic) in U.S. political history – and the mainstream media is complicit in their lies to the American public about Joe Biden’s mental state,’ Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital last week. ‘They owe an apology to not just our campaign, but more importantly to the American people, for this major scandal that has led to the demise of our country over the past four years.’

The majority of questions Jean-Pierre fielded Tuesday afternoon revolved around Biden’s mental and physical health, with the press secretary underscoring that Biden and his allies, such as former President Obama, have noted the debate did not go well for the president but that he’s ‘fighting’ for the American people. 

‘Is anyone in the White House hiding information about the president’s health or his ability to do the job day to day?’ one reporter asked Jean-Pierre. 

‘Absolutely not,’ she answered. 

‘After the debate, did the president get examined by a doctor, or did he get a neurological scan?’ another reporter asked.

‘A neurological scan? Look, what I can say is that, just to take a step back, it was a bad night. We understand that it was a bad night, and the president has spoken to this, and he understands that,’ she responded.

Jean-Pierre continued in the press briefing that the administration has been ‘transparent’ about the president’s health history, saying they have released comprehensive medical reports for Biden’s annual checkups.

The press conference comes the same day as Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, called on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, marking the first time an elected Democrat official called on the president to bow out.

‘President Biden has continued to run substantially behind Democratic senators in key states and in most polls has trailed Donald Trump. I had hoped that the debate would provide some momentum to change that. It did not. Instead of reassuring voters, the president failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies,’ Doggett said.

Legacy media outlets, such as the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, published opinion pieces calling on Biden to bow out of the race after the debate, and former elected officials and other traditional allies of the party have made similar remarks.

The Democratic Party and its allies are ‘coming to terms’ with the fact that President Biden is ‘not in control’ of his administration following the president’s disastrous debate performance, according to a congressman who served as a physician in the White House under three administrations.

Democrats are ‘now coming to terms with the reality that concerned Americans and I have shared for many years, which is that President Biden is not in control and he is not in charge. They are for the first time acknowledging that this is a grave concern for our national security and the integrity of our democracy,’ Rep. Ronny Jackson told Fox News Digital this week. 

‘I’ve gone to no lengths to hide my true opinions about Joe Biden and his policies that are wrecking our country. In tandem, I have consistently shared my concerns as a former doctor of three United States Presidents regarding his fitness for office. Joe Biden was never fit for the job, and he sure as heck isn’t fit for the job moving forward. It is absolutely crazy to think he could lead this country 4-year term as our President,’ Jackson added. 

The Texas Republican previously served as physician to the president under both the Obama and Trump administrations, after previously serving in the White House Medical Unit in the George W. Bush administration. Jackson has been at the forefront of sounding the alarm on Biden’s mental acuity since he announced his candidacy for the White House in 2020. 

Jackson’s comments come as former Homeland Security Secretary under the Obama administration, Jeh Johnson, said in an MSNBC interview this week hat he still supports Biden’s re-election campaign due to Biden’s cabinet members. 

‘A presidency is more than just one man,’ Johnson said on MSNBC on Tuesday. ‘I would take Joe Biden at his worst day at age 86 so long as he has people around him like Avril Haines, Samantha Power, Gina Raimondo supporting him, over Trump any day.’ 

‘I was in the White House when Joe Biden was VP, and the man we’ve seen since announcing his candidacy is not the same man who was VP for eight years.’

Concern over the president’s mental fitness and age is at a fever pitch this summer, following last Thursday’s debate performance where the president tripped over his words, lost his train of thought at times, delivered responses with a raspy voice, and was overall slammed for having a slow and weak demeanor while squaring up against former President Donald Trump. 

‘We finally beat Medicare,’ Biden said amid one his debate gaffes, with Trump responding that Biden is destroying the senior-focused health insurance program. 

Moments later, when Biden and Trump traded barbs over the immigration crisis, Trump slammed Biden for his rambling response.

‘I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either,’ Trump shot back. 

Jackson continued in his comments to Fox News Digital that President Biden is ‘not the same man’ that America knew during his tenure as former President Obama’s veep. 

‘In 2020, I was criticizing candidate Joe Biden for his apparent lack of fitness for his first potential term,’ he said. ‘I was in the White House when Joe Biden was VP, and the man we’ve seen since announcing his candidacy is not the same man who was VP for eight years.’

‘I’ve gone to no lengths to hide my true opinions about Joe Biden and his policies that are wrecking our country. In tandem, I have consistently shared my concerns as a former doctor of three United States Presidents regarding his fitness for office. Joe Biden was never fit for the job, and he sure as heck isn’t fit for the job moving forward. It is absolutely crazy to think he could lead this country 4-year term as our President.’ 

The White House brushed off Jackson’s comments when approached by Fox News Digital, comparing Jackson to a doctor character from ‘The Simpsons.’

‘We’ll put this in the same box where we keep the rest of Dr. Nick Riviera’s fan mail,’ White House spokesman Andrew Bates said. 

Following the debate, Jackson argued the Democratic Party made an about-face with its support of Biden. Left-wing media pundits were among the first to express concern over the debate performance, taking over the airways immediately after the debate ended, expressing shock over the president’s performance. 

‘I just want to speak from my heart,’ CNN political commentator and former Obama adviser Van Jones said in an emotional response on Thursday evening. ‘I love that guy. That’s a good man. He loves his country. He‘s doing the best that he can, but he had a test to meet tonight to restore confidence of the country and of the base. And he failed to do that. And there‘s a lot of people who are going to want to see him consider taking a different course now.’

‘We‘re still far from our convention, and there is time for this party to figure out a different way forward, if he will allow us to do that,’ he continued. ‘But that was not what we needed from Joe Biden, and it’s personally painful for a lot of people. It‘s not just panic, it’s pain of what we saw tonight.’ 

Vice President Kamala Harris soon hit the news channels following the debate to defend the president’s performance, including having a testy exchange with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

‘Democratic lawmakers watching the debate were worried about the performance. One said it was a disaster and another called it a train wreck. Those are Democrats especially worried that Biden did not punch back on Trump‘s lies,’ Cooper said. 

Harris attempted to pivot to lambasting Trump as a liar, but Cooper cut her off. 

‘All that may be true, but the President of the United States was not able to make that case to Donald Trump on the stage tonight,’ Cooper said. ‘You debated against then-Vice President Biden four years ago, and he was a very different person on the stage four years ago when you debated him. That‘s certainly true, is it not?’

‘The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant.’

— The New York Times editorial board

Thursday’s late-night media analysis of the debate soon cascaded into legacy outlets, including the New York Times and Chicago Tribune, calling on Biden to devise an exit strategy and drop out of the race. 

The New York Times described a blunt assessment of Biden, saying, he ‘is not the man he was four years ago.’

‘The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant. He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence,’ the editorial board wrote. ‘Mr. Biden has been an admirable president. Under his leadership, the nation has prospered and begun to address a range of long-term challenges, and the wounds ripped open by Mr. Trump have begun to heal. But the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election.’

Jackson told Fox News Digital that ongoing inflation, the spiraling immigration crisis, and the ‘weaponization of our justice system’ under the Biden administration is due to an ‘inner circle’ at the White House making decisions as opposed to the president himself. 

‘The past three and a half years have revealed what happens when you have a physically and mentally incapacitated President who is not making the decisions. Instead, his ‘inner circle,’ led by Jill Biden and radical progressive staffers in the administration, are pulling the strings and deciding the fate of our country. Sadly, they have put our country into a death spiral,’ he said. ‘Americans have had to suffer through raging inflation, a wide-open border, unprecedented crime in the streets, and the weaponization of our justice system. Meanwhile, our Commander-in-Chief, who is responsible for the nuclear codes, shuffles around oblivious to everything around him.’

A White House official told the media that Biden had a cold during the debate, ostensibly in a bid to explain Biden’s performance and raspy voice. Jackson squelched that narrative, arguing Biden’s behavior Thursday was more of the same America has witnessed since 2020. 

‘I don’t believe President Biden had a cold. For several years now, we’ve seen and heard the same Joe Biden we witnessed at the debate who speaks softly, slurs his speech, and appears confused. Unfortunately it was on full display during the debate and our adversaries, our allies, and the whole world watched in disbelief that this could possibly continue to be the leader of the free world,’ he said. 

Amid left-wing media outrage over the debate performance and some Democratic politicians joining the media’s chorus calling for Biden to step aside, the president and his circle of allies have defended him remaining in the race. Biden hit the campaign trial following the debate, visiting North Carolina for an event last Friday, before traveling to the Northeast for fundraisers. 

‘I didn’t have a great night, but I’m going to be fighting harder,’ Biden told the several dozen people at a New Jersey fundraiser. 

‘Research during the debate shows us converting more undecided voters than Trump did, in large part because of his conduct on Jan. 6,’ he added. ‘People remember the bad things during his presidency.’

First lady Jill Biden has also been at the forefront of defending her husband remaining in the race. 

‘[We] will not let those 90 minutes define the four years he’s been president. We will continue to fight,’ Jill Biden told Vogue. The first lady is Vogue’s cover story for its August edition. 

‘[President Biden] will always do what’s best for the country.’

‘The contrast between Trump and Biden has never been clearer than after Thursday’s debate, and it’s time to turn a new page for America and provide real leadership both domestically and on the world stage.’

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Biden’s mental fitness has come under scrutiny for years, which was compounded in February when Special Counsel Robert Hur published his report investigating the president’s handling of classified documents after his departure as vice president under the Obama administration. 

The report stated Hur would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, calling Biden ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’

The Wall Street Journal also published a piece earlier this year based on dozens of interviews with lawmakers and administration officials who characterized Biden as losing his mental edge and showing his age in meetings. The White House slammed the article as a partisan hit piece. 

As calls ring out among members of the media and some Democrats for Biden to step aside, Fox News confirmed the Democratic National Committee is considering formally nominating Biden as early as mid-July. The Democratic Party is holding its convention towards the end of August in Chicago. 

‘The contrast between Trump and Biden has never been clearer than after Thursday’s debate, and it’s time to turn a new page for America and provide real leadership both domestically and on the world stage. That day is just around the corner to officially retire Joe Biden and allow President Trump to Make America Great Again,’ Jackson said.