Parkinson’s Doctor Tells NBC Biden Has ‘Classic Features’ of Disease: ‘I Could Have Diagnosed Him From Across the Mall’
Dr. Tom Pitts, a board-certified neurologist, told NBC News on Monday that President Joe Biden is displaying symptoms of Parkinson’s despite having never been in the “same room” as the man.
Pitts joined Tom Llamas on Top Story with Tom Llamas and argued it’s easy to diagnose Biden with some kind of neurological-degeneration just from his recent public appearances. Pitts joined Llamas as calls for Biden to drop off the Democratic Party ticket are continuing. Biden, 81, has been defiant and said he is the best chance to defeat Donald Trump, 78, in November.
“I see him 20 times a day in clinic,” Pitts said of Biden. “It’s ironic because he has the classic features of neurodegeneration, word-finding difficulties, and that’s not, oh, I couldn’t find the word, that’s from degeneration of the word retrieval area.”
Llamas noted that Biden’s stutter could be a reason for him sometimes stumbling on words, but Pitts insisted that the cognitive concerns combined with repeated physical behavior point towards something more than the stutter. He cited Biden’s “rigidity” in moving and soft voice as physical symptoms of Parkinson’s.
“I could have diagnosed him from across the mall,” Pitts said.
Speculation ran rampant after the New York Times published a report highlighting the fact that a doctor who is an expert on Parkinson’s had visited the White House eight times in eight months. The president’s physician has since clarified that the doctor has been making White House visits for years and has a “very wide expertise which makes him flexible to see a variety of patients and problems.”
At a fiery White House press conference on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not directly answer questions on the Times report, but said the president is not being treated for Parkinson’s.
Biden’s team said he was suffering from a cold before the recent CNN debate against Trump and had a hoarse voice. Biden also later blamed jet lag from a return trip from Europe nearly two weeks before for his performance.
Pitts called for both Biden and Trump to take a four hour cognitive test that would include things like block building, memory recall tests, and more.
“The problem is when you look at his situation, you can’t say, oh, I know for a fact that because he didn’t retrieve the word, he didn’t know what he wanted to say and that’s why both him and Trump should take the four hour neuropsychological testing which is the hallmark test for cognitive performance,” the doctor said.
Watch above via NBC News.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
