Despite the media having spent years taking pot shots at Trump for everything from his physical health to his weight to his diet to his sleep patterns to his mental faculties, Jill Biden says it’s “ridiculous” for Trump to question her husband’s cognitive abilities.
“Joe is on the phone every single minute of the day, talking to governors who are calling him and Nancy Pelosi. He’s on the Zoom. He’s doing fundraisers. He’s doing briefings,” Mrs. Biden said on NBC’s Today. “He doesn’t stop from 9 in the morning until 11 at night.”
When asked by NBC’s Savannah Guthrie whether it’s fair for the Trump camp to call cast concern on her 77-year-old husband’s mental abilities, Jill responded that it’s “ridiculous.”
Joe Biden’s mental awareness has been in question for some time, as his campaign has been plagued with an avalanche of gaffes, stumbles, and major lapses in memory. On several occasions, Biden has appeared to make up things that never happened, including his time spent as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania (side note: he wasn’t one) and a bizarre story about having been arrested in South Africa with Nelson Mandela back in the ‘70s (another side note: that didn’t happen). In one particularly difficult moment, Biden appeared to forget the famous opening line to the Declaration of Independence. Even on good days, Biden has appeared to struggle to remember what year it is, what office he's running for, when he was elected, and when notable laws were passed.
The Trump camp has called Biden’s faculties into question on more than one occasion, including in a recent ad highlighting some of Biden’s biggest gaffes and stumbles. The campaign says it’s important that voters think about whether Biden is competent enough to be president.
"We think it's very important that voters fully assess Joe Biden's qualifications and fitness to be president," a senior campaign official told Axios. “Our data show that people are concerned about his ability to do the job.”