As concerns grow over the US president’s fitness for duty and European differences hovered over a divided NATO summit, Foreign Editor David Pratt takes stock of a wobbly week in Washington

You couldn’t help but notice a prevailing sense of foreboding at last week’s NATO summit. At times the unease in Washington was near palpable and a consequence of two things. The first was the uncertainty hanging over US President Joe Biden’s fitness for office as a tough election campaign looms.

The second was the extent to which Europe’s homegrown political maladies were on display, threatening to hamper what was meant to be a reaffirmation of NATO members’ commitment to the alliance, 75 years after 12 countries first came together in Washington to sign a historic defence pact in the wake of the Second World War.

To the take the case of Biden first, it wasn’t just his verbal gaffes, something not unusual in the long political career of a man who overcame a childhood stutter. Following his dismal debate performance against rival Donald Trump in Atlanta, Georgia, last month even closer attention than ever has been given to Biden’s age and cognitive ability.

While Biden himself has refused calls to take a cognitive test in the wake of that damaging debate performance, arguing instead that the challenges of his job amount to daily cognitive tests, this has done little to assuage the concerns of an increasing number of leading Democrats.

Donald Trump on the campaign trail (Image: free)

At least 19 congressional Democrats – 18 House members and one senator have publicly called on Biden to withdraw from the race as of last Friday morning. While this number represent a relatively small fraction of the more than 200 Democrats on Capitol Hill, their damning statements have intensified scrutiny of Biden and his ability to serve another four years as president.

Biden’s mistaken reference to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin,” at the NATO summit and then mixing up the name of his vice president, Kamala Harris and his rival Trump at a following news conference, only added to the clamour in some Democrat quarters calling for him to stand aside in the coming campaign.

Even before last Thursday’s press conference - Biden’s first solo one in eight months - there was more bad news hovering over the president as a Pew Research poll found that 71% of Biden’s own voters wanted both him and former president Trump to drop out.

But even as calls for Biden to step aside or take a medical test grew, doctors say such calls for a cognitive exam alone couldn’t make a definitive determination whether Biden is fit for duty and could be misconstrued by non-medical professionals who don’t have a full picture of the president’s health.

“A snapshot in time is not a diagnosis,” Dr Sharon Sha, clinical professor of neurology and neurological studies at Stanford University, recently told the American business magazine Forbes, adding that cognitive tests don’t provide a diagnosis either, but can instead suggest whether more detailed testing, such as an MRI or brain scan, is........

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