The Patriot Post® · Who's Running the Show at 1600?

Last month, we wondered — not for the first time — about President Joe Biden’s mental state. We wondered whether he was really up to the job he’d been pushed into by a Democrat Party desperate to get rid of Donald Trump.

We’re still wondering. And so, clearly, are a lot of other Americans, if a new poll by the Trafalgar Group is any indication. The poll asked one simple question of 1,086 likely voters: Do you believe President Biden is fully executing the duties of his office? The results make clear that certain things can’t be hidden forever by a complicit mainstream media, as 56.5% of likely voters don’t believe Biden is fully in charge, 36.4% believe he is, and 7.1% aren’t sure.

Think about that: Just over a third of us think Joe Biden is fully carrying out the duties of the presidency. The rest of us, to varying degrees, are pretty sure that he isn’t.

Perhaps even more remarkable is that 31.7% of Democrats don’t think Biden is fully in charge. Here, it would’ve been fascinating to know what percentage of that percentage is actually relieved that other hard-left elements within the Biden White House are actually directing policy.

The latest painful example of Biden’s cognitive struggles played out during his visit to a northern Michigan ice cream shop over the July 4th weekend. When he was asked about the latest Russian cyberattack, he appeared completely at a loss while he fumbled around in his coat pocket for some talking points:

This is just one of many episodes in which Biden, unscripted and forced to think on his feet, fails to do so. And we mentioned the media’s complicity, because it’s worth recalling how differently they treated Trump when he was in office. Recall the regular discussions about the 25th Amendment against Trump — the amendment that outlines the pattern of succession should a president become incapacitated. Further, recall the media’s repeated demands that President Trump take a cognitive test — demands that have fallen utterly silent during the Biden presidency.

Perhaps more than any other American citizen, first-term Texas Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson is qualified to weigh in on this issue. After all, he understands the great strain and the awesome cognitive demands of the American presidency, because he served as White House physician to both Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Last month, Jackson penned a letter to Biden, cosigned by 13 fellow House Republicans, which urged the president to submit to a cognitive test and share the results with the American people. He also issued a written statement, which read in part:

The American people deserve to have absolute confidence in their President. They deserve to know that he or she can perform the duties demanded of the office, and they deserve to have full transparency on the mental state of their highest elected leader. I would argue that the American people don’t have that confidence in President Biden. When I was Physician to President Donald J. Trump, the liberal media relentlessly pushed a narrative that he needed a cognitive test and that it should be the standard for anyone serving as Commander-in-Chief and Head of State. I administered the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA) test and President Trump excelled. Given the precedent set and Biden’s clear mental impairment, I believe it is past time he undergo a cognitive test.

“You don’t need to be a physician to look at this behavior and see there’s something concerning happening,” Jackson said of Biden over the weekend. “You can go back — there’s 40 years of tape of this man. He’s always made gaffes and stuff, but these are different. He’s confused, he’s disoriented. … He’s just not aging gracefully at this point.”

Indeed, he’s not. Nor is the mainstream media carrying out its duties to ask the essential question about this most vital matter of national security: Is the American president of sound mind?