Former President Joe Biden’s doctor should have given him more cognitive tests, according to the doctor of former President Barack Obama.
Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as Obama’s doctor between 2009 and 2013, told the New York Post on Saturday that Biden and any politician over the age of 70 should be given “a few hours” of annual mental exams that should be accessible to the public.
“My position is that a 78-year-old candidate, Trump at the time, an 82-year-old president [Biden] would both benefit from neurocognitive testing,” Kuhlman said.
He went on to say that “any politician over the age of 70 has normal age-related cognitive decline,” and pointed out that he’s been recommending annual mental exams for more than a year.
Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, oversaw three physicals for the president during his time in office, but Kuhlman says the physical reports did not include notes from a neurocognitive specialist.
He also pointed out that Biden did not take the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which Donald Trump agreed to take during his first term. That test is a two-minute screening test of about 30 questions that probes for signs of dementia, according to Kuhlman.
Obama’s doctor said that he had “no doubts” that Trump “aced” the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, but said he believes that the White House should also release the CT scans taken after Trump’s attempted assassination last year.
While the Montreal test is able to detect some basic signs of dementia, the doctor noted that it wasn’t adequate for determining more serious cognitive issues.
According to Kuhlman, mental processing speed and spacial visualization all begin to decline around the age of 60.
Kuhlman said he respected O’Connor’s medical judgement, but added that “sometimes those closest to the trees miss the forest.”
O’Connor told the New York Post in July 2024 — just days after the then-president announced he would not run for re-election — that Biden’s cognitive health was “excellent.”
Then-White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted to the public that Biden didn’t “need a cognitive test” because he “passes a cognitive test every day.”
She has since decided to leave the Democratic Party and write a tell-all book about her time in the White House, earning her a savaging by some Democrats.
Visitor logs to the White House show that Biden did submit an evaluation form to an expert in Parkinson’s Disease, but O’Connor said that the meeting was part of Biden’s annual physical.
