Former Vice President Joe Biden questioned whether President Trump was smart enough to shepherd the country through the coronavirus pandemic and the economic fallout.
“When it comes to the pandemic, after months of failure, he just gave up,” Biden told the 2020 Democratic National Convention’s Wisconsin delegation Wednesday.
The 2020 Democratic presidential nominee added, “You know, I used to think it was because of his personality, but I just don’t think he can intellectually handle it. I don’t think he’s competent enough to know what to do. He just waved the white flag.”
Biden, Trump, and their campaigns have increasingly mocked one another over the candidates’ mental capacity since March, when Trump’s team asked whether the two-term vice president was “playing with a full deck” in an email to reporters.
The rhetoric has seeped into media coverage, starting with questions regarding Biden’s age. Biden’s 77, while Trump’s 74.
Biden’s also been forced to clarify whether he’s taken a cognitive test after seeming to tell a reporter at a press conference he had.
“No, I haven’t taken a test. Why the hell would I take a test?” he said a couple of days later. “C’mon, man.”
Meanwhile, Trump proudly touts acing a similar test that required takers to draw a clock at a certain time and count backward.
Former second lady Jill Biden earlier Wednesday responded to the Trump camp’s latest slate of attack ads about her husband’s mental fitness for office. She told NBC the claims were “ridiculous.”
“You know, he’s on the Zoom from 9 a.m. until 10, 11 at night,” she said in a separate interview with CBS. “There’s no question about that. Joe is busy every minute of the day.”
