Texas Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson’s recent comments on Fox News praising former President Donald Trump’s cognitive health have once again brought his controversial opinions and penchant for espousing conspiracy theories into the spotlight.
During an appearance on Fox News, Jackson boasted about Trump’s ability to pass the now-infamous "Person, Woman, Camera, Man, TV” test, which is designed to check for signs of cognitive decline, not intelligence.
He also claimed that the test is not particularly easy, contradicting the test’s inventor, Dr. Ziad Nasreddine, who has stated that it is "meant to be easy" for someone without cognitive impairment.
Jackson went on to assert that Trump’s ability to speak for two hours straight is evidence of his cognitive health and qualification for office, while calling President Joe Biden “an angry, confused old man.”
You can hear what Jackson said in the video below.
Jackson said:
" Donald Trump is four or five years younger than [Biden]. The man can stand up unprompted without any teleprompter or anything else and he can talk for two hours and he's very articulate and he's very easy to understand and he's very easy to relate to."
Critics have pointed out that while Trump is known for lengthy speeches, they are often unfocused and meandering.
Jackson was swiftly mocked for his remarks.
Trump has previously been criticized for bragging about acing an intelligence test that was actually an assessment to check for cognitive impairment and at one point declared he'd taken the test to prove he is more intelligent than “radical left maniacs.”
In fact, the "intelligence test" Trump bragged about was actually a Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), a widely used screening assessment for detecting cognitive impairment.
MoCA was designed to assess different cognitive domains, including attention and concentration, executive functions, memory, language, visuoconstructional skills, conceptual thinking, calculations, and orientation.
The assessment's questions are simple and ask test subjects to demonstrate if they can remember five words. Cohen stressed that it is unimpressive that Trump can remember five words—namely “person, woman, man, camera, TV”—as Trump demonstrated at one point on live television.
Trump's claim was also criticized by his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen—who once suggested the fact Trump had him write numerous letters to different schools in an effort to conceal his transcripts and scores on standardized tests is proof enough his cognitive abilities are nowhere near what he has publicly claimed.
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