Speaker Johnson sees ‘cognitive decline’ in Biden: ‘It’s just reality’

New House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Fox News on Thursday night that he sees a “cognitive decline” in President Biden, echoing one of the network’s frequent criticisms of the president.  

“Do you see in Joe Biden a cognitive decline? And if so, is that a danger to the country?” Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Johnson.

“I do, I think most of us do,” the 51-year-old Speaker responded. “That’s reality. It’s not a personal slight to him, it has to do with age and acumen, and everyone’s different. Everyone ages differently.”

“Clearly, if you look at a tape of Joe Biden making an argument in the Senate Judiciary Committee a few years ago, and you see a speech that he delivers now, there’s a difference,” Johnson continued. “Again, I mean, it’s not a personal insult to him. It’s just reality.”

Johnson became Speaker of the House on Wednesday, after weeks of turmoil in the lower chamber, where Republicans nominated but failed to elect three other candidates. The President and Johnson met Thursday at the White House.

“Jill and I congratulate Speaker Johnson on his election,” Biden said in a statement on Johnson’s election Wednesday. “As I said when this process began, whoever the Speaker is, I will seek to work with them in good faith on behalf of the American people.”

“That’s a principle I have always held to, and that I’ve acted on – delivering major bipartisan legislation on infrastructure, outcompeting China, gun reform, and veterans care,” Biden’s statement continued.

The president’s campaign sent a different message.

“MAGA Mike Johnson’s ascension to the speakership cements the extreme MAGA takeover of the House Republican Conference,” Biden-Harris 2024 spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement released Wednesday.

“Now, Donald Trump has his loyal foot soldier to ban abortion nationwide, lead efforts to deny free and fair election results, gut Social Security and Medicare, and advance the extreme MAGA agenda at the expense of middle-class families.”

Johnson during the Hannity interview also voiced support for the ongoing impeachment inquiry into the president, which was started under his predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), whose ouster more than three weeks ago led to the Louisiana Republican’s rapid ascension.

“I believe the documents are proving all that,” Johnson said in the interview. “As my good brother Jamie Comer often says, ‘The bank records don’t lie,’ so we have the receipts on so much of this now. It’s a real problem, that’s the reason that we shifted into the impeachment inquiry stage on the president himself.”