House Republican would amend Constitution to require cognitive competency for presidents
Naomi Lim
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EXCLUSIVE — One House Republican wants to amend the Constitution so presidents and vice presidents have to prove their cognitive competency.
Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), a family medicine practitioner before he was elected to Congress in 2010, will introduce a bill Tuesday proposing the constitutional amendment amid polling underscoring Democratic concerns over President Joe Biden‘s 80 years of age before a likely 2024 reelection campaign announcement.
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“This should be a completely nonpartisan issue and all Americans deserve leaders that are mentally competent,” DesJarlais told the Washington Examiner. “How this is not already a requirement codified in law defies logic.”
Amending the Constitution is not an easy process, with proposals needing two-thirds majority support in the House and Senate or the backing of a national convention convened at the request of two-thirds of the country’s legislatures. The proposal then has to be ratified by three-quarters of the states, either through their legislatures or a convention.
But DesJarlais is already working with the House GOP Doctors Caucus, co-chaired by Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), Michael Burgess (R-TX), and Greg Murphy (R-NC), on companion legislation that will detail which tests they consider necessary for a presidential or vice presidential candidate to be deemed cognitively competent.
“It will need to be administered by a nonpartisan commission to avoid political targeting,” DesJarlais said. “I like the idea of the same requirement for senators and representatives as well.”
Democrats have pitched similar proposals in the past, most notably Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) in 2017. Yet DesJarlais differentiated his efforts from that of Raskin because a constitutional amendment would prevent cognitively incompetent presidential hopefuls from even being included on the ballot.
DesJarlais’s proposal comes after former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, 51, called for congressional term limits and a “mandatory competency test” for politicians older than 75 last week during her own presidential campaign announcement. Haley’s proposal would apply to Biden, who would be 82 at his second inauguration should he seek reelection and win next year, in addition to her only declared opponent for the Republican nomination, former President Donald Trump, 76.
“America is not past our prime. It’s just that our politicians are past theirs,” Haley said in South Carolina.
Trump subsequently lent support for the idea in a social media post.
White House physician Kevin O’Connor declared Biden “a healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency” last week after his second annual physical examination. But polls indicate Democratic skittishness about the prospect of a Biden second term, such as an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey that found this month 37% of Democrats endorse him running again, a decrease from 52% before last year’s midterm elections.
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The White House has defended Biden from the indirect criticism of his age, health, and performance, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterating how the president has previously defied critics.
“They said he couldn’t do it in 2020, and he beat them,” Jean-Pierre said last week. “Maybe they are forgetting the wins the president has had these past couple of years, but I am happy to remind them.”