Donald Trump sparked fresh dementia rumors after blasting Barack Obama over testing when asked about the United States’ soaring coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Asked by a reporter about his strategy to handle the worsening case count Monday, Trump answered: “Biden and Obama stopped their testing. They just stopped it. You probably know that I’m sure you don’t want to report it. They stopped testing right in the middle.
“They just went no more testing. And on a much lesser problem than the problem we have. This is the worst thing that’s happened since 1917, it’s a very bad thing all over the world, its 188 countries right now.
“But no, we test more than anybody by far, and when you test you create cases. We have all of these cases, so, you know, it’s a double-edged sword. We have just about the lowest mortality in the world. We’re doing a great job…”
The president appeared to be referencing the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic which happened on Obama and Biden’s watch and killed an estimated 12,500 Americans.
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But Trump’s garbled defense was quickly seized on by Pennsylvania Representative Brian Sims as evidence of the president’s cognitive decline. Sims shared a link to Trump’s comments on his Facebook page, and wrote: “DEMENTIA? This is either the type of dementia or the type of lying that the 25th Amendment is designed for. ‘Our President is not capable of the integrity and intelligence needed to save this country from a global pandemic.”
The 25th Amendment is designed to remove a president if he or she is found to be unsuitable for office.
Trump has previously faced questions over his mental abilities, but recently insisted he had been given a clean bill of health by White House doctors.
The president has repeatedly sought to deflect the blame for the COVID-19 crisis, which has seen close to 3.5 million Americans infected, and over 134,000 killed.
While other countries across the world have seen the outbreak decline, US cases continue to break records and hit an all-time one-day record of 65,000 last week.