Ronald Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis said she thinks cognitive tests for sitting presidents would “probably be a good idea” on Sunday.
Asked by NBC Meet the Press’ Kristen Welker about the issue of age in the upcoming presidential election, Davis supported the idea of testing the mental acuity of aging presidents like Joe Biden, who is 81. “Just what we know about what age can do—it doesn’t always do that—but it would probably be a good idea,” she said.
“My father was 77 when he left office. That seems so young now, doesn’t it?” she added. Reagan, at 69, was the oldest president ever elected at the time he took office. Biden and former president Donald Trump have both dwarfed that record; Trump will be 78 on inauguration in 2025 if he wins this year, and Biden will be 82.
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Although Reagan’s policies have little in common with Biden’s, the conservative president was also the subject of widely speculated cognitive decline during his years in office. Reagan unveiled his struggles with Alzheimer’s disease at age 83, five years after leaving the presidency, but many believed his battles started while he was still president.
Biden’s memory issues have become the linchpin of Democratic anxiety over the upcoming election. In an explosive report that ultimately cleared Biden of criminal wrongdoing, special counsel Robert Hur made several incendiary comments about the president’s mental decline which Biden’s allies have called unprofessional and partisan, and which his enemies have seized on. Donald Trump’s mental acuity has also been questioned to a lesser extent, after he confused Republican rival Nikki Haley for Democratic former speaker Nancy Pelosi.
