Politics
Dems 'coming to terms' that Biden 'not in control' following disastrous debate: former WH doc
The Democratic Party and its allies are “coming to terms” with the fact that President Biden is “not in control” of his administration following the president’s disastrous debate performance, according to a congressman who served as a physician in the White House under three administrations.
Democrats are “now coming to terms with the reality that concerned Americans and I have shared for many years, which is that President Biden is not in control and he is not in charge. They are for the first time acknowledging that this is a grave concern for our national security and the integrity of our democracy,” Rep. Ronny Jackson told Fox News Digital this week.
“I’ve gone to no lengths to hide my true opinions about Joe Biden and his policies that are wrecking our country. In tandem, I have consistently shared my concerns as a former doctor of three United States Presidents regarding his fitness for office. Joe Biden was never fit for the job, and he sure as heck isn’t fit for the job moving forward. It is absolutely crazy to think he could lead this country 4-year term as our President,” Jackson added.
The Texas Republican previously served as physician to the president under both the Obama and Trump administrations, after previously serving in the White House Medical Unit in the George W. Bush administration. Jackson has been at the forefront of sounding the alarm on Biden’s mental acuity since he announced his candidacy for the White House in 2020.
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Texas GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician, said Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report “validates” what he and many Americans have known all along – that President Biden has “serious issues.” (Getty Images)
Jackson’s comments come as former Homeland Security Secretary under the Obama administration, Jeh Johnson, said in an MSNBC interview this week hat he still supports Biden’s re-election campaign due to Biden’s cabinet members.
“A presidency is more than just one man,” Johnson said on MSNBC on Tuesday. “I would take Joe Biden at his worst day at age 86 so long as he has people around him like Avril Haines, Samantha Power, Gina Raimondo supporting him, over Trump any day.”
“I was in the White House when Joe Biden was VP, and the man we’ve seen since announcing his candidacy is not the same man who was VP for eight years.”
Concern over the president’s mental fitness and age is at a fever pitch this summer, following last Thursday’s debate performance where the president tripped over his words, lost his train of thought at times, delivered responses with a raspy voice, and was overall slammed for having a slow and weak demeanor while squaring up against former President Donald Trump.
“We finally beat Medicare,” Biden said amid one his debate gaffes, with Trump responding that Biden is destroying the senior-focused health insurance program.
Moments later, when Biden and Trump traded barbs over the immigration crisis, Trump slammed Biden for his rambling response.
EX-WHITE HOUSE DOCTOR RONNY JACKSON CALLS ON BIDEN TO TAKE DRUG TEST BEFORE TRUMP DEBATE
President Biden is seen at last week’s presidential debate. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either,” Trump shot back.
Jackson continued in his comments to Fox News Digital that President Biden is “not the same man” that America knew during his tenure as former President Obama’s veep.
“In 2020, I was criticizing candidate Joe Biden for his apparent lack of fitness for his first potential term,” he said. “I was in the White House when Joe Biden was VP, and the man we’ve seen since announcing his candidacy is not the same man who was VP for eight years.”
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“I’ve gone to no lengths to hide my true opinions about Joe Biden and his policies that are wrecking our country. In tandem, I have consistently shared my concerns as a former doctor of three United States Presidents regarding his fitness for office. Joe Biden was never fit for the job, and he sure as heck isn’t fit for the job moving forward. It is absolutely crazy to think he could lead this country 4-year term as our President.”
The White House brushed off Jackson’s comments when approached by Fox News Digital, comparing Jackson to a doctor character from “The Simpsons.”
“We’ll put this in the same box where we keep the rest of Dr. Nick Riviera’s fan mail,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said.
Voters have expressed concerns over Biden’s age and capability to serve a second term after the debate. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Following the debate, Jackson argued the Democratic Party made an about-face with its support of Biden. Left-wing media pundits were among the first to express concern over the debate performance, taking over the airways immediately after the debate ended, expressing shock over the president’s performance.
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“I just want to speak from my heart,” CNN political commentator and former Obama adviser Van Jones said in an emotional response on Thursday evening. “I love that guy. That’s a good man. He loves his country. He‘s doing the best that he can, but he had a test to meet tonight to restore confidence of the country and of the base. And he failed to do that. And there‘s a lot of people who are going to want to see him consider taking a different course now.”
President Joe Biden (R) and Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump participate in the CNN Presidential Debate at the CNN Studios on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“We‘re still far from our convention, and there is time for this party to figure out a different way forward, if he will allow us to do that,” he continued. “But that was not what we needed from Joe Biden, and it’s personally painful for a lot of people. It‘s not just panic, it’s pain of what we saw tonight.”
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a “First In The Nation” campaign rally at South Carolina State University on February 02, 2024 in Orangeburg, South Carolina. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Vice President Kamala Harris soon hit the news channels following the debate to defend the president’s performance, including having a testy exchange with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
“Democratic lawmakers watching the debate were worried about the performance. One said it was a disaster and another called it a train wreck. Those are Democrats especially worried that Biden did not punch back on Trump‘s lies,” Cooper said.
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Harris attempted to pivot to lambasting Trump as a liar, but Cooper cut her off.
“All that may be true, but the President of the United States was not able to make that case to Donald Trump on the stage tonight,” Cooper said. “You debated against then-Vice President Biden four years ago, and he was a very different person on the stage four years ago when you debated him. That‘s certainly true, is it not?”
“The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant.”
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Thursday’s late-night media analysis of the debate soon cascaded into legacy outlets, including the New York Times and Chicago Tribune, calling on Biden to devise an exit strategy and drop out of the race.
The New York Times described a blunt assessment of Biden, saying, he “is not the man he was four years ago.”
“The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant. He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence,” the editorial board wrote. “Mr. Biden has been an admirable president. Under his leadership, the nation has prospered and begun to address a range of long-term challenges, and the wounds ripped open by Mr. Trump have begun to heal. But the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election.”
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Jackson told Fox News Digital that ongoing inflation, the spiraling immigration crisis, and the “weaponization of our justice system” under the Biden administration is due to an “inner circle” at the White House making decisions as opposed to the president himself.
Physician to U.S. President Donald Trump Dr. Ronny Jackson speaks during the daily White House press briefing at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House January 16, 2018 in Washington, DC. Dr. Jackson discussed the details of President Trump’s physical check-up from last week. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“The past three and a half years have revealed what happens when you have a physically and mentally incapacitated President who is not making the decisions. Instead, his ‘inner circle,’ led by Jill Biden and radical progressive staffers in the administration, are pulling the strings and deciding the fate of our country. Sadly, they have put our country into a death spiral,” he said. “Americans have had to suffer through raging inflation, a wide-open border, unprecedented crime in the streets, and the weaponization of our justice system. Meanwhile, our Commander-in-Chief, who is responsible for the nuclear codes, shuffles around oblivious to everything around him.”
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A White House official told the media that Biden had a cold during the debate, ostensibly in a bid to explain Biden’s performance and raspy voice. Jackson squelched that narrative, arguing Biden’s behavior Thursday was more of the same America has witnessed since 2020.
“I don’t believe President Biden had a cold. For several years now, we’ve seen and heard the same Joe Biden we witnessed at the debate who speaks softly, slurs his speech, and appears confused. Unfortunately it was on full display during the debate and our adversaries, our allies, and the whole world watched in disbelief that this could possibly continue to be the leader of the free world,” he said.
President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Amid left-wing media outrage over the debate performance and some Democratic politicians joining the media’s chorus calling for Biden to step aside, the president and his circle of allies have defended him remaining in the race. Biden hit the campaign trial following the debate, visiting North Carolina for an event last Friday, before traveling to the Northeast for fundraisers.
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“I didn’t have a great night, but I’m going to be fighting harder,” Biden told the several dozen people at a New Jersey fundraiser.
“Research during the debate shows us converting more undecided voters than Trump did, in large part because of his conduct on Jan. 6,” he added. “People remember the bad things during his presidency.”
First lady Jill Biden has also been at the forefront of defending her husband remaining in the race.
“[We] will not let those 90 minutes define the four years he’s been president. We will continue to fight,” Jill Biden told Vogue. The first lady is Vogue’s cover story for its August edition.
“[President Biden] will always do what’s best for the country.”
“The contrast between Trump and Biden has never been clearer than after Thursday’s debate, and it’s time to turn a new page for America and provide real leadership both domestically and on the world stage.”
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Biden’s mental fitness has come under scrutiny for years, which was compounded in February when Special Counsel Robert Hur published his report investigating the president’s handling of classified documents after his departure as vice president under the Obama administration.
The report stated Hur would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, calling Biden “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The Wall Street Journal also published a piece earlier this year based on dozens of interviews with lawmakers and administration officials who characterized Biden as losing his mental edge and showing his age in meetings. The White House slammed the article as a partisan hit piece.
As calls ring out among members of the media and some Democrats for Biden to step aside, Fox News confirmed the Democratic National Committee is considering formally nominating Biden as early as mid-July. The Democratic Party is holding its convention towards the end of August in Chicago.
Physician to the President Ronny Jackson gives a thumbs up after U.S. President Donald Trump leaves Walter Reed National Military Medical Center following his annual physical examination January 12, 2018 in Bethesda, Maryland. Trump will next travel to Florida to spend the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“The contrast between Trump and Biden has never been clearer than after Thursday’s debate, and it’s time to turn a new page for America and provide real leadership both domestically and on the world stage. That day is just around the corner to officially retire Joe Biden and allow President Trump to Make America Great Again,” Jackson said.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Politics
House Republicans push Johnson to go to war with Senate over SAVE Act
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Several House Republicans are pushing Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to go to war with the Senate GOP over an election security bill that has little chance of passing the upper chamber under current circumstances.
House GOP leaders convened a lawmaker-only call on Sunday in the wake of a massive military operation against Iran launched by the U.S. and Israel.
After leaders briefed House Republicans on how the chamber would respond to the ongoing conflict — including a vote on ending Democrats’ weeks-long government shutdown targeting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — Fox News Digital was told that several lawmakers raised concerns about the Senate not yet taking up the Safeguarding American Voter Eligiblity (SAVE America) Act. Among other provisions, the act would require voters in federal elections to produce valid ID and proof of citizenship.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., was among those pushing the House to reject any bills from the Senate until the measure was taken up, telling Johnson according to multiple sources on the call, “If we don’t get this done, or at least show that we’ve got some backbone, we’re done. The midterms are over.”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., pauses for questions from reporters as he arrives for an early closed-door Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)
At least three other House Republicans shared similar concerns. Sources on the call said Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, argued that GOP voters were “not enthused” heading into November and that “the single biggest thing” to turn that around would be forcing the Senate to pass the SAVE America Act.
The SAVE America Act passed the House last month with support from all Republicans and just one Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas.
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Republicans have pointed out on multiple occasions that voter ID measures have bipartisan support across multiple public polls and surveys. But Democrats have dismissed the legislation as an attempt at voter suppression ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks at a press conference with other members of Senate Republican leadership following a policy luncheon in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 28, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The legislation would require 60 votes in the Senate to break filibuster, which it’s likely not to get given Democrats’ near-uniform opposition. But House Republicans have pressured Senate Majority Leader John Thune to use a mechanism known as a standing filibuster to circumvent that — which Thune has signaled opposition to, given the vast amount of time it would take up in the Senate and potential unintended consequences in the amendment process.
It also comes as Congress grapples with the fallout from the strikes on Iran and the need to ensure safety for the U.S. domestically and for service members abroad, both of which will require close coordination between the two chambers.
Johnson told Republicans several times on the Sunday call that he was privately pressuring Thune on the bill but was wary of creating a public rift with his fellow GOP leader, sources said.
HARDLINE CONSERVATIVES DOUBLE DOWN TO SAVE THE SAVE ACT
“If we’re going to go to war against our own party in the Senate, there may be implications to that,” Johnson said at one point, according to people on the call. “So we want to be thoughtful and careful.”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, talks with a guest during a “Only Citizens Vote Bus Tour” rally in Upper Senate Park to urge Congress to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
At another point in the call, sources said Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., suggested pairing a coming vote on DHS funding with the SAVE America Act in order to force the Senate to take it up.
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But both Johnson and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., were hesitant about such a move given the enhanced threat environment in the wake of the U.S. operation in Iran.
Both spoke out in favor of the SAVE America Act, people told Fox News Digital, but warned the current situation merited leaving the DHS funding bill on its own in a bid to end the partial shutdown, so the department could fully function as a national security shield.
Politics
Trump justifies Iran attack as Congress and others raise objections
According to President Trump, the United States attacked Iran because the Islamic Republic posed “imminent threats” to the U.S. and its allies, including through its use of terrorist proxies and continued pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas and our allies throughout the world,” he said in a recorded statement Saturday.
According to leading Democrats in Congress, Trump’s justification is questionable, especially given his claims of having “completely obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities in separate U.S. bombings last June.
“Everything I have heard from the administration before and after these strikes on Iran confirms this is a war of choice with no strategic endgame,” said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and part of a small group of congressional leaders — the Gang of Eight — who were briefed on the operation by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
That divide is bound to remain an issue politically heading into this year’s midterm elections, and could be a liability for Republicans — especially considering that some in the “America First” wing of the MAGA base were raising their own objections, citing Trump’s 2024 campaign pledges to extricate the U.S. from foreign wars, not start new ones.
The debate echoed a similar if less immediate one around President George W. Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, also based on claims that “weapons of mass destruction” posed an immediate threat. Those claims were later disproved by multiple findings that Iraq had no such arsenal, fueling recriminations from both political parties for years.
The latest divide also intensified unease over Congress ceding its wartime powers to the White House, which for years has assumed sweeping authority to attack foreign adversaries without direct congressional input in the name of addressing terrorism or preventing immediate harm to the nation or its troops.
Even prior to the weekend bombings, Democrats including Sen. Adam Schiff of California were pushing Congress to pass a resolution barring the Trump administration from attacking Iran without explicit congressional authorization.
“President Trump must come to Congress before using military force unless absolutely necessary to defend the United States from an imminent attack,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the armed services and foreign relations committees, said in a statement Thursday.
In justifying the daylight strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei just two days later, Trump accused the Iranian government of having “waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder” for nearly half a century — including through attacks on U.S. military assets and commercial shipping vessels abroad — and of having “armed, trained and funded terrorist militias” in multiple countries, including Hezbollah and Hamas.
Trump said that after the U.S. bombed Iran last summer, it had warned Tehran “never to resume” its pursuit of nuclear weapons. “Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland,” he said.
Other Republican leaders largely backed the president.
“The United States did not start this conflict, but we will finish it. If you kill or threaten Americans anywhere in the world — as Iran has — then we will hunt you down, and we will kill you,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“Every president has talked about the threat posed by the Iranian regime. President Trump is the one with the courage to take bold, decisive action,” said Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi.
While Iran’s coordination with and sponsorship of groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas are well known, Trump’s claims about Tehran’s ongoing development of nuclear weapons systems are less established — and the administration has provided little evidence to back them up.
Democrats seized on that lack of fresh intelligence in their responses to the attacks, contrasting Trump’s latest statements about imminent threats with his assertion after last year’s bombings that the U.S. had all but eliminated Iran’s nuclear aspirations.
“Let’s be clear: The Iranian regime is horrible. But I have seen no imminent threat to the United States that would justify putting American troops in harm’s way,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Gang of Eight. “What is the motivation here? Is it Iran’s nuclear program? Their missiles? Regime change?”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement that the Trump administration “has not provided Congress and the American people with critical details about the scope and immediacy of the threat,” and must do so.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said the Trump administration needs congressional authority to wage such attacks barring “exigent circumstances,” and didn’t have it.
“The Trump administration must explain itself to the American people and Congress immediately, provide an ironclad justification for this act of war, clearly define the national security objective and articulate a plan to avoid another costly, prolonged military quagmire in the Middle East,” he said.
After the U.S. military announced Sunday that three U.S. service personnel were killed and five others seriously wounded in the attacks, the demands for a clearer justification and new constraints on Trump only increased.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) said Sunday he is optimistic that Democrats will be unified in trying to pass the war powers resolution, and also that some Republicans will join them, given that the strikes have been unpopular among a portion of the MAGA base.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who partnered with Khanna to force the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, has said he will work with him again to push a congressional vote on war with Iran, which he said was “not ‘America First.’”
Benjamin Radd, a political scientist and senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, said that whether or not Iran represented an “imminent” threat to the U.S. depends not just on its nuclear capabilities, but on its broader desire and ability to inflict pain on the U.S. and its allies — as was made clear to both the U.S. and Israel after the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which Iran praised.
“If you are Israel or the United States, that’s imminent,” he said.
What happens next, Radd said, will largely depend on whether remaining Iranian leaders stick to Khamenei’s hard-line policies, or decide to negotiate anew with the U.S. He expects they might do the latter, because “it’s a fundamentalist regime, it’s not a suicidal regime,” and it’s now clear that the U.S. and Israel have the capabilities to take out Iranian leaders, Iran has little ability to defend itself, and China and Russia are not rushing to its aid.
How the strikes are viewed moving forward may also depend on what those leaders decide to do next, said Kevan Harris, an associate professor of sociology who teaches courses on Iran and Middle East politics at the UCLA International Institute.
If the conflict remains relatively contained, it could become a political win for Trump, with questions about the justification falling away. But if it spirals out of control, such questions are likely to only grow, as occurred in Iraq when things started to deteriorate there, he said.
Israel and the U.S. are betting that the conflict will remain manageable, which could turn out to be true, Harris said, but “the problem with war is you never really know what might happen.”
On Sunday, Iran launched retaliatory attacks on Israel and the wider Gulf region. Trump said the campaign against Iran continued “unabated,” though he may be willing to negotiate with the nation’s new leaders. It was unclear when Congress might take up the war powers measure.
Politics
Video: Trump’s War of Choice With Iran
new video loaded: Trump’s War of Choice With Iran
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