Biden ACES Cognitive Test!

(From AP News, Reuters and CNN – April, 1, 2022) In a surprise move, President Joe Biden took a battery of cognitive assessment tests and recorded the highest score in history –105 out of a possible 100 points. Justice Stephen Breyer, who was recently told he was leaving the Supreme Court so he could spend more time with his family, was the official witness. The test was conducted at an office in Philadelphia.

At 2:00 p.m, speaking to poll reporters on the way into the facility, Biden said “I am going to ace this test!” A poll reporter took these photos (above) of the President on his way into and then out of the testing office from a different entrance two hours later. The testing was paused for a half hour by a power failure and nearby water main break, but Justice Breyer said “nothing unusual occurred during the delay.” But, when pressed by reporters, Breyer admitted he did step out for a few minutes to use the bathroom. During the one-hour session, Biden completed the Standardized Mental State Examination (SMMSE), an assessment tool that was initially developed as a screening test to distinguish ‘organic’ from ‘non-organic’ (e.g. schizophrenia) cognitive disorders. It includes a calculation task (subtracting 7s from 100), and spelling of the word ‘WORLD’ backwards. He also completed the Abbreviated Mental Test (AMT), which includes components requiring intact short and long term memory, attention and orientation and the Six-Item Screener (SIS) of three orientation questions (day, month and year) and a three-item recall task derived from the MMSE.31, followed by the Six-Item Cognitive Impairment Test (6CIT), also known as the Short Orientation-Memory-Concentration Test, or the Blessed Orientation-Memory-Concentration Test. It is constructed from six items of the Blessed mental status test (initially 26 items). It includes one memory, two calculation and three orientation questions. The President also did the Clock Drawing Test (CDT), which is a screen for visuospatial, constructional praxis and frontal/executive impairment. Subjects are told to draw a circle, and then add numbers as if it were a clock face. Then they are asked to draw on the hands to represent a specific time. The time ‘10 past 11’ is typically used, as this tests the patients’ capacity to compute that the minute hand should be pointing to the number 2, rather than 10 (a frontal/executive function). At 2:15 p.m., White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, released a statement. “The President has aced his cognitive assessment with a score of 105. This should now put to rest all the rumors that he is mentally impaired in any way. We won’t be entertaining any more questions about his mental abilities. Any further questions on the subject will result in the reporter’s dismissal from the Press Corps.