• Posted June 9, 2025

Ex-White House Doctor Says Biden Should Have Had a Cognitive Test

MONDAY, June 9, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A former White House physician says former President Joe Biden should have had a cognitive test during his 2024 physical, given his age and the demands of being president.

Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as President Barack Obama’s doctor, said a mental fitness test would have helped the White House and public better understand whether the then-81-year-old Biden was capable of serving another term, The Washington Post reported.

“Sometimes those closest to the tree miss the forest,” Kuhlman said, talking about Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s longtime physician and author of the 2024 health report that did not include cognitive testing.

O’Connor has served as Biden’s doctor since 2009 and did not respond to requests for comment from The Post.

Kuhlman said the role of the president is too demanding to only consider basic health.

“It shouldn’t be just health, it should be fitness,” he said. “Fitness is: Do you have that robust mind, body, spirit that you can do this physically, mentally, emotionally demanding job?”

Biden’s medical report in early 2024 concluded he was “fit for duty” and listed results from 10 medical specialists, including a neurologist. It described Biden as “a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male.”

The lack of a cognitive assessment has drawn scrutiny with House Republicans subpoenaing O’Connor as part of a wider effort to understand the former president’s health.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has ordered White House attorneys to find out if Biden’s inner circle tried to hide his alleged cognitive decline, The Post reported.

A book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson published last month also raised concerns. It described Biden as sometimes forgetful and fatigued, citing interviews with Democratic insiders conducted after the 2024 election.

The book also said O’Connor was hesitant to give Biden a cognitive test, although a neurologist had screened him for conditions like Parkinson’s disease.

Biden responded to the book with sarcasm: “You can see that I’m mentally incompetent, and I can’t walk, and I can beat the hell out of both of them,” he said during a Memorial Day event.

His granddaughter, Naomi Biden, called the book “political fairy smut," The Post reported.

After his stint as White House physician, Kuhlman wrote a book arguing that presidents — especially older ones — should be tested for cognitive function often.

“No one has a vested interest in hearing the truth about the president’s health — except for the American people and the world,” Barbara Perry, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia, told The Post.

There’s no law that says how often a president should be examined or what those exams should include.

White House doctors usually do an annual physical and release a memo with blood work, exam results and a statement on whether the president is fit for duty.

Doctors for both Biden and Trump have followed this tradition, but Biden's reports were always more thorough than Trump's, according to The Post.

Some former White House doctors say they were never pressured to hide information. 

“You never lie,” said Dr. Lawrence Mohr, who served as physician to Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. “You put out a clear press release about what’s going on, what to expect and you get it out there. If you don’t do that, you end up with all sorts of speculation.”

Over the nation's history, some presidents have gone to great lengths to hide serious illnesses.

President Grover Cleveland secretly had surgery aboard a yacht to remove a tumor in 1893. Woodrow Wilson’s wife and doctor kept the extent of his 1919 stroke — which left him paralyzed on one side — hidden from even his Cabinet members.

On the other hand, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told his team to “tell them everything” after his 1955 heart attack. His doctors gave the public regular updates, The Post said.

Still, experts say the lack of support on the president’s willingness to share information with the public makes medical transparency unknown.

“I was fortunate to have 50-year-old patients instead of 80-year-old ones,” Kuhlman said, referring to Obama and former President George W. Bush, who didn't take cognitive tests during their time in office.

More information

Read President Donald Trump's 2025 health report.

SOURCE: The Washington Post, June 7, 2025