OAN Staff Abril Elfi
1:27 PM – Saturday, May 3, 2025
A report by The New York Times claims that a new book revealed former President Joe Biden’s team avoided having the president take a cognitive test in February of 2024.
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The book “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” written by Tyler Pager, a reporter for The New York Times, Josh Dawsey, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Isaac Arnsdorf, a reporter for the Washington Post, is set to be released in July of this year.
According to reports, the book stated how Biden’s top aides chose not to have the former president complete a cognitive test due to rising concerns about his age and ability to serve.
“At the same time, Mr. Biden’s longtime doctor, Kevin O’Connor, had told aides he would not take the 81-year-old president’s political standing into consideration when treating him,” the Times reported, citing the book.
The report states that the debate on whether Biden should take the test occurred in February of last year, just a few weeks before his White House physical exam.
The debate occurred the same month as when Special Counsel Robert Hur described Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” following a report of the former president’s mishandling of classified documents.
The Times also noted a conversation between former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain, and former Obama aide David Axelrod. The report stated that Klain called Axelrod following a Times report from June 2022 that quoted Axelrod saying, “The stark reality is the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a major issue.”
“That comment prompted an angry call to Mr. Axelrod from Ron Klain, then Mr. Biden’s chief of staff, according to the book. Mr. Klain wanted to know why Mr. Axelrod was fueling doubts about a Democratic president who was on track to begin a re-election campaign,” the Times report added.
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