President Joe Biden‘s advanced age is a major sore point heading into the upcoming election. And the 81 year-old’s recent spate of public gaffes are raising more concerns.
Both experts and voters have voiced concern over Biden’s series of odd ‘freezing’ incidents over the past week.
Most recently, the president’s face and body appeared to freeze on stage at a fundraiser in Los Angeles. Biden stopped moving after his speech, staring blankly over the crowd for several seconds.
But a White House representative dismissed reports of a frozen reaction to DailyMail.com as ‘fakes’ and ‘lies,’ explaining his reaction was simply ‘taking in an applauding crowd for a few seconds.’
The episode comes less than a week after POTUS seemed to also freeze at a Juneteenth White House celebration during a concert featuring gospel singer Kirk Franklin.
He was seen staring blankly ahead as Vice President Kamala Harris danced beside him. In a speech at the event, he also seemed to slur his words.
Just days before the Los Angeles incident, while attending the G7 summit in Italy, another video showed the president wandering off, walking away from other world leaders while watching a skydiving demonstration and giving a thumbs up in the opposite direction.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni then approached Biden and directed him back to the group.
The president’s team said this video did not show there were other skydiving demonstrators above the leaders in another direction.
The White House has regularly batted away criticism and maintained Biden is in top shape, both physically and mentally, and will be able to effectively serve another term until 2028 — when he would reach 86 years old.
In February, the results of his annual physical were released and revealed there were ‘no new concerns’ about his health.
The report detailed several medical conditions the president has, including sleep apnea, acid reflux, an irregular heartbeat, high cholesterol, seasonal allergies, arthritis and nerve damage in his feet.
It also listed out medications he is on to treat those conditions, including one blood thinner that lists confusion as a side effect.
But now, experts speculate his freezing could be a sign of a handful of conditions.
A Los Angeles-based doctor said: ‘Frozen, masked faces, diminished arm swing, less frequent blinking, [are] likely due to a central neurological disorder like Parkinson’s.’
President Joe Biden attends a flags ceremony and skydiving display during the G7 where he appeared to wander off
The plastic surgeon Dr Sheila Nazarian continued in a tweet: ‘If this was just a normal, elderly person, I would not post about it. However, perceived weakness in our commander in chief is a national security threat. It affects us all.
‘Right now, we need a leader who exudes power and strength… We need to bring back excellence, merit, and love for America. We need to reign in all this craziness.’
Commenting on neurodegenerative disorders in general and not specifically on the president’s condition, Dr Ziad Nasreddine, a neurologist who invented the gold-standard cognitive test, previously told DailyMail.com slurred speech is seen in Parkinson’s — which affects levels of brain hormones that are involved in movement.
Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in older adults after Alzheimer’s Disease.
More than 90,000 people in the US are diagnosed with the condition every year, most of who are men over 60.
While symptoms such as tremors are well known, Parkinson’s disease can also cause stiffness and problems with moving the limbs and face, as well as slurred speech.
It is also known to cause cognitive impairment — affecting memory, concentration and even mood.
Symptoms of the disease worsen with time and there is no cure. The disease itself is not fatal, but patients can die from complications of it, such as pneumonia, heart disease, falls, choking or urinary tract infections.
Rare genetic changes could be behind Parkinson’s, as well as exposure to toxins, but experts are still unsure of the cause.
Former President Barack Obama was seen giving Biden’s arm a gentle tug and leading him off the stage after the president froze during the applause at a fundraiser in Los Angeles
Biden speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Los Angeles on Saturday before a video showed him appearing to freeze and being led off stage by Obama
Aside from the physical side effects of the disease, Parkinson’s can also lead to thinking difficulties and cognitive problems, as well as depression and anxiety.
Biden has recently been seen to mix up the names of world leaders names and reference deceased politicians and public figures.
In February, Biden botched the identification of a world leader, calling Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
He also appeared to forget the name of the terrorist organization Hamas at a separate press conference that month.
And just two days before that, Biden made another gaffe when he referred to French president Emmanuel Macron as Francois Mitterrand, the country’s former leader who died 28 years ago.
He also mixed up late German leader Helmut Kohl with former Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Dr Nasreddine said mixing up names and dates is ‘concerning in terms of that’s not supposed to happen with normal aging.
‘It could happen… occasionally we make a mistake. But if it’s happening very often, I think it does raise concern.’
Due to his mishaps, doctors have called on Biden to take a cognitive test and make the results public.
Dr Stuart Fischer, an internal medicine doctor in New York City, previously told DailyMail.com: ‘We are long overdue for this type of investigation. No one likes to admit or recognize the passage of time, whether it is me or the president of the United States, but in certain cases you have to.
‘[Biden] is a public servant, an elected official… and does have some responsibility to the people who voted for him.’
