House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Republicans of ignoring President Donald Trump’s deteriorating health in a blistering interview ahead of Tuesday’s State of the Union.
Speaking to MeidasTouch’s Ben Meiselas ahead of the 79-year-old president’s address, Jeffries said that Trump “was clearly never qualified to be president.”
“That was true 10 years ago, and it certainly is true today,” Jeffries continued. “He is deteriorating before our very eyes, struggling to string coherent thoughts together, let alone function as commander-in-chief.”
He continued to issue a rebuke of his Republican colleagues, telling Meiselas, “My Republican colleagues in the House and in the Senate continue to bury their heads in the sand. They know something is wrong, but it doesn’t matter to them because they are part of a cultlike situation.”
“Instead of functioning like a separate and co-equal branch of government, which is what the Congress is designed to be, they’d rather perform like a reckless rubber stamp to Donald Trump’s extreme agenda, which is why we’ve gotta make sure that there’s real accountability for them in November,” he added, referring to the midterm elections where Republicans are already facing an uphill battle thanks to Trump’s historically low approval ratings.
Jeffries has previously demanded that the House Oversight Committee investigate the executive branch’s mixed messaging surrounding the president’s health.
“Robert Garcia and the Oversight Democrats have done a great job, particularly as it relates to the Epstein files, of pushing the Comer Committee to be forced into doing the right thing,” Jeffries told influencer Aaron Parnas, arguing that the committee should approach the issue of messaging around the president’s health with the same rigor.
“I don’t believe that this is something that should wait until the American people give Democrats the majority in the aftermath of the November election later on this year,” he continued.
“Congress, in its role as a separate and coequal branch of government, should make sure the administration comes clean as it relates to the president’s ability to continue to do the job at the level the American people deserve.”
The Daily Beast has documented Trump’s declining health meticulously, with everything from the ever-present bruising on his hands to the fact that he falls asleep in meetings raising questions about his continued fitness for office.
Medical experts have also voiced concerns about what they believe to be signs of his cognitive decline, including slurring his speech, rambling, and generally struggling to articulate his thoughts.
Medical analyst for NBC News Dr. Vin Gupta reflected on Trump’s family history of age-related dementia last month, claiming that he was seeing a “trend line” that “seems like it’s getting worse.”
Trump’s father died in 1993 at the age of 93 from pneumonia, complicated by Alzheimer’s disease. Prior to his death, he had been diagnosed with dementia.
Even members of Trump’s own base have begun to question his stability, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday finding that 30 percent of Republicans think the president has become erratic with age, while 17 percent think he is not mentally sharp or able to deal with challenges.
Overall, the numbers are even worse, with the majority of Americans expressing concern about the president’s decline. 61 percent feel that Trump has become erratic with age, while 49 percent of all Americans feel he is not mentally sharp.
In addition to concerns about his health, voters do not approve of Trump’s performance as president overall. Ahead of his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, his approval rating is the lowest it has ever been, with 56 percent of Americans disapproving of his leadership.
Undeterred, the president has sought to chalk these numbers up to the fact that his supporters are silent. “It just amazes me that there’s not more support out there,” Trump said at a White House event on Monday.
“We actually have silent support. I think it’s silent. I think that’s how I won.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
