(Fox News) Former President Barack Obama reprimanded his own former White House physician for criticizing Joe Biden’s cognitive health on the 2020 presidential campaign trail, according to a forthcoming book.
In his memoir “Holding the Line: A Lifetime of Defending Democracy and American Values,” Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, writes about a stern email from Obama for then-presidential candidate Biden’s “crazy statements and concerning mental gaffes” — a criticism he was uniquely qualified to make having served as the White House physician to Presidents George W. Bush, Obama and Donald Trump.
“Biden was on TV again, making crazy statements and concerning mental gaffes; he didn’t know what state he was in or what office he was campaigning for,” Jackson recalls of the 2020 campaign season. “He apparently thought at one point that he was running for the Senate and later couldn’t remember what state he was campaigning in. This had been going on for months and was getting worse.
“For years, the media had accused Trump of being mentally unwell, and in 2018 many commentators mocked Jackson for saying that a cognitive evaluation Trump had taken showed he was in “excellent” mental shape and “had absolutely no cognitive or mental issues whatsoever.”
“Trump never made crazy statements like the ones Biden was making almost every day,” Jackson writes in his book, “but these people were jumping up and down: ‘He’s not fit to be president; he needs a cognitive test!’”
In 2020, when Jackson himself was running for Congress, the media’s lack of attention to Biden’s cognitive frailty bothered him greatly. He retweeted a video of Biden’s “latest cognitive misadventure” with the message: “Remember the cognitive test that I gave @realDonaldTrump? The one he aced! Sounds like somebody else might need some testing done!! Scary!!”
Within 20 minutes of that tweet, Jackson received a “scathing” email from President Obama.
“I have made a point of not commenting on your service in my successor’s administration and have always spoken highly of you both in public and in private. You always served me and my family well, and I have considered you not only a fine doctor and service member but also a friend,” Obama wrote in the email.
“That’s why I have to express my disappointment at the cheap shot you took at Joe Biden via Twitter. It was unprofessional and beneath the office that you once held. It was also disrespectful to me and the many friends you had in our administration. You were the personal physician to the President of the United States as well as an admiral in the U.S. Navy. I expect better, and I hope upon reflection that you will expect more of yourself in the future,” Obama told Jackson.
