President Joe Biden's cognitive health is clearly in decline, and a prominent figure who knows a thing or two about the subject just called out the White House and the first lady for being aware of the problem but not doing anything to address it.

Former Housing Sec. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, said first lady Jill Biden "in particular" bore responsibility for there being a mentally "impaired" president in charge of the nation right now, according to Fox News.

He went on to suggest that an insatiable desire for "power" and control was likely the reason that the president's wife and aides haven't intervened to end his failing presidency or absurd quest for another four-year term.

First lady, White House, must be aware of Biden's "cognitive issues"

During a recent interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, former Sec. Carson said all of the nation's problems right now are "self-inflicted" by the current administration, "because we don't have leadership and the rest of the world is watching us and we're a laughing stock."

"You know, you have somebody who is impaired with the nuclear codes, in charge of the military, in charge of the safety of the people of our country. How can this be?" Carson continued, which prompted Bartiromo to raise President Biden's questionable behavior and "capacity" during the recent G7 summit in Italy.

Asked for his opinion as a former doctor about whether Biden could continue his re-election bid or be forced by his own family, staffers, or party to withdraw, Carson said, "I'm sure they are gathering and trying to figure out how to get out of this dilemma, which they created, because they knew from the beginning that he was having some cognitive issues."

"His wife, in particular, must have known that, and yet there is such a desire for power and prestige that you put the welfare of the country and the people on the back burner," he added. "And I hope the people of America understand that. I think the people of America are a lot smarter than many on the left give them credit for."

Polling shows most Americans see Biden's cognitive decline

Former Sec. Carson is correct to presume that the American people have taken notice of President Biden's mental health decline -- at least if public polling is any indication.

Just last week, CBS News reported that its pollsters found that just 35% of registered voters believed that Biden had the mental and cognitive health to serve as president while 65% did not -- a number that included 29% of Democrats, 72% of independents, and 92% of Republicans.

A few days before that, Rasmussen reported that 57% of likely voters said that Biden has been "getting less and less mentally sharp" over the past few years since he first took office -- a figure that doesn't bode well as he asks those same voters to give him another four-year term in office.

The increasingly apparent cognitive decline of President Biden over the years, as tracked through public polling, was also duly noted by The Washington Post in May as part of its report on a then-current poll which found that just 32% and 33% of voters, respectively, believed that Biden had the mental and physical health to continue to "serve effectively" as the president, as well as that more than 70% believed he was too old to be the president.

It further observed that the Pew Research Center recently found that 68% of voters said Biden wasn't "mentally sharp" enough to serve, up from 46% in March 2021, while other polls, including its own, had shown similar declines over the past few years in the number of voters who believed that Biden's cognitive capabilities were worsening.

It is "cruel" to keep "trotting Biden around" as if he is fine

All of that and more prompted the New York Post's Editorial Board to recently declare that Democratic "denialism" of Biden's cognitive decline wasn't just "unconvincing" but was also "cruel," and like Dr. Carson, the Post appeared to call out first lady Jill Biden and White House staffers for essentially lying to the American people about the elderly president's capabilities.

"Whatever it is, to any outsider it looks downright cruel to keep trotting Biden around under the pretense that he can possibly serve four more years in the world’s most grueling job," the editorial board concluded. "How much longer must we bear this grim charade?"