Louisiana Senator Calls for Senility Tests for Ageing Politicians
A United States Senator from Louisiana is endorsing the idea that politicians 80-years-of-age and older should be subjected to annual senility tests. And he's not joking.
And that, of course, means it has to be the state's senior Senator, Dr. Bill Cassidy.
President, Congress and the Supreme Court
On the HBO TV series, Axios, Cassidy said that he would be in favor of cognition tests for leaders in all three branches of government.
Cassidy, without referring directly to 78-year-old President Joe Biden or Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who's 81, told Axios that "people begin a rapid decline when they hit 80 years old."
And the Senator also told Axios, "It’s usually noticeable, so anybody in a position of responsibility who may potentially be on that slope, that is of concern. And I’m saying this as a doctor.
“I’m told that there have been senators in the past who, at the end of their Senate terms were senile. I’m told that was true of senators of both parties.”
But was He Really Talking About the Current President?
Cassidy reiterated that the tests should be annual, but failed to give details about who actually should give the tests, who should select the test-givers and if making such a test mandatory would have any chance of passing Congress.
And while most viewers the Republican Senator was referring to the septuagenarian President and octogenarian Speaker, critics of the idea pointed out that Cassidy, one of a handful of GOP members who voted to impeach Donald Trump, might be using the testing idea as a way to try to get rid of the former-President should he be reelected in 2024.