Tipsheet

This Is Why Biden Didn't Take a Cognitive Test As Part of His Physical

President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Walter Reed Medical Center Wednesday morning for his annual physical.  

"I'm squared away," Biden said after the appointment and before a meeting with law enforcement at the White House. "They think I look too young."

During the daily press briefing in the afternoon, Secretary Karine Jean Pierre said Biden didn't take a cognitive test as part of the physically because he "doesn't need one." 

She also refused to make Biden's physician available for questioning, arguing it isn't "the norm." Former President Donald Trump's physician was made available to the press for robust questioning inside the briefing room. 

The statements are at odds with a report put out by Special Counsel Robert Hur, which states Biden wasn't charged for a serious of felonies because of his failing memory and lack of recollection. 

"We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during out interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," the report states. "Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."