Rep. Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician, has said he received a “scathing” email from former President Barack Obama when Jackson suggested that then-2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden undergo a test of his cognitive abilities.
The missive from the 44th president came after Jackson (R-Texas) retweeted a video of one of the “mental gaffes” Biden made on the campaign trail, Jackson writes in his memoir “Holding the Line,” a copy of which was obtained by Fox News.
“Remember the cognitive test that I gave @realDonaldTrump? The one he aced! Sounds like somebody else might need some testing done!! Scary!!” tweeted Jackson, who served in the White House Medical Unit under both Obama and George W. Bush and became physician to the president in 2013.
Within 20 minutes of tweeting, Jackson writes, Obama’s email hit his inbox.
In it, the former president wrote that he always spoke “highly” of Jackson in public and private, and considered him a “fine doctor and service member but also a friend.”
”That’s why I have to express my disappointment at the cheap shot you took at Joe Biden via Twitter,” Obama went on. “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,” the email continued. “I expect better, and I hope upon reflection that you will expect more of yourself in the future.”
Jackson was criticized and widely mocked in 2018 for declaring former President Donald Trump in “excellent” mental shape with “absolutely no cognitive or mental issues whatsoever” after the media questioned the 45th president’s mental fitness.
Jackson writes in his memoir that he believed he was, as a former White House physician, immensely qualified to weigh in on Biden’s mental abilities.
“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 recalled.
“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,” he added.
“Trump never made crazy statements like the ones Biden was making almost every day,” Jackson writes, “but these people were jumping up and down [saying] ‘He’s not fit to be president; he needs a cognitive test!’”
Jackson said he contemplated responding to Obama’s email but eventually decided against it.
“[U]pon reflection, I thought, ‘You know what? Screw that guy! I’m not doing it,'” Jackson says in the book. “I just walked away from it, which was the last time I had any contact with [Obama].”
“It’s awfully ironic now, considering [Biden’s mental fitness] is all anyone, including the liberal media, can talk about,” Jackson told Fox News.
“Let it be known, as the White House physician for the last three presidents, I was the first to say that we have a serious problem with this man’s cognitive demise, and he will not make it four years in office,” he added. “I’ve always said there would come a point where it wouldn’t be just me talking about it, but his own party, and sadly, that has proven to be the case. Joe Biden’s cognitive failures are on full display for the whole world to see.”
Jackson was among 38 Republicans who sent a letter to the president in February, asking the 79-year-old to take a cognitive test.
“Holding the Line” is due out July 26.