RNC chair Ronna McDaniel argues Biden isn't 'mentally competent' to be president

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel argued Tuesday that President Biden is not "mentally competent" to serve in the White House.

In an op-ed for The Hill published Tuesday, McDaniel wrote that special counsel Robert Hur's report "exposed the extent of the president's cognitive decline" and revealed how he is not mentally fit for office. The special counsel's report found that Biden "willfully retained and disclosed classified materials" as a private citizen, including national security documents with "sensitive intelligence sources and methods" that were stored in his home, garage and office for decades.

"However, the special counsel declined to recommend charging Biden because he is an ‘elderly man with a poor memory … someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt,’" McDaniel wrote. "This isn’t just someone’s well-meaning parent or grandparent they’re talking about, it’s our commander in chief — and these findings raise serious concerns about Biden’s ability to handle the pressures of the office." 

She went on to document several instances where Biden has displayed "confusion and obfuscation" as president, including at least nine times when the president has described conversations "with a dead or non-existent person" since taking office in 2021. 

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The Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel is seen here speaking before a Republican presidential primary debate hosted by NBC News on Nov. 8, 2023, in Miami. McDaniel argued in an op-ed that President Biden has shown signs of mental decline and is not fit to serve in the White House. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Earlier this month, Biden raised eyebrows after he told a crowd in Las Vegas that he recently met with Francois Mitterrand, the French president who has been dead for nearly 30 years. He also mistakenly referred to Mitterand as being from "Germany." 

McDaniel has joined a growing chorus of Republicans — and even some Democrats — who have raised concerns about the president's age and fitness for office. 

Former President Clinton lead strategist James Carville said earlier this month that it appeared the White House has little confidence in Biden after he turned down a Super Bowl Sunday interview. 

"It’s the biggest television audience, not even close, and you get a chance to do a 20-25-minute interview on that day," Carville said. "And you don’t do it? That’s a kind of sign that the staff, or yourself, doesn’t have much confidence in you. There’s no other way to read this."

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President Biden has faced renewed criticism of his advanced age since the release of special counsel Robert Hur's report into his handling of classified documents. Hur declined to bring charges against Biden, writing in part that a jury would find him sympathetic as an elderly and forgetful man. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Another former Clinton strategist, Paul Begala, said Hur’s indictment of Biden’s memory and Biden's subsequent response was "terrible for Democrats."

"Oh yeah. Look, I’m a Biden supporter, and I slept like a baby last night: I woke up every two hours crying and wet the bed," Begala quipped on CNN on Feb. 9. "This is terrible for Democrats. And anybody with a functioning brain knows that," he declared. 

The White House and Biden's re-election campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has previously defended Biden's gaffes as something that "happens to all of us, and is common." 

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However, McDaniel questioned whether Biden's misstatements and advancing age are signs that he is unable to make critical leadership decisions to protect Americans.

"Biden left Americans behind in Afghanistan, rejoined the disastrous Iran nuclear deal, allowed a Chinese spy balloon to surveil our country and failed to take action on rising crime here in the United States," McDaniel wrote. "If Biden is asleep at the wheel, who is making the critical national security decisions that aren’t just affecting the U.S., but our entire world?"

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She also pointed to public polling that shows an overwhelming number of Americans share concerns about the president's age and fitness for office. Eighty-six percent of Americans think Biden, 81, is too old to serve another term as president, while 62% think the same of Republican 2024 frontrunner former President Trump, 77, according to a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll.

"I have empathy for Joe Biden’s situation," McDaniel wrote. "We all have loved ones who struggle with their mental acuity in their old age — but the bar can’t be so low for the president of the United States." 

Fox News Digital's Michael Lee, Brandon Gillespie, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Greg Norman contributed to this report.