Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the well-known neurosurgeon, is now calling upon President Joe Biden to undergo cognitive and neurological testing. 

Gupta, who is CNN's top medical correspondent, made the call in an op-ed that he wrote for the outlet on Friday, July 5, 2024.

The op-ed is titled, Dr. Sanjay Gupta: It's time for President Biden to undergo detailed cognitive and neurological testing and share his results. 

This article comes amid the fallout from Biden's poor performance at the first presidential debate. Gupta, in the op-ed, revealed, from a medical standpoint, what was so concerning about Biden's performance.

Gupta's take:

In the op-ed, Gupta began by giving his take on Biden's debate performance.

He wrote:

For me as a brain specialist, it was concerning to watch President Joe Biden, and it quickly became clear that I was not alone in my reaction. Over the past week, I received more than a dozen calls, texts and emails from medical colleagues who, like me, specialize in the brain. It wasn’t that what we noticed was necessarily new but that it was particularly pronounced, and right from the start of the debate.

Gupta went on to write, specifically, what it was about Biden's performance that has concerned both he and his medical colleagues.

He wrote:

From a neurological standpoint, we were concerned with his confused rambling; sudden loss of concentration in the middle of a sentence; halting speech and absence of facial animation, resulting at times in a flat, open-mouthed expression. To be clear, these are only observations, not in any way diagnostic of something deeper, and none of these doctors wished to suggest that was the case.

Instead of giving a diagnosis, Gupta wrote, "The consensus from the doctors reaching out to me, however, was that the president should be encouraged to undergo detailed cognitive and movement disorder testing, and those results should be made available to the public."

Biden says it's not going to happen

It started off with former President Donald Trump and his allies calling for Biden to undergo cognitive testing. But, now - in a surprising turn of events - some of Trump's biggest enemies - including CNN and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) - seem to be in agreement about the idea that Biden ought to undergo cognitive testing.

The only problem, though, is that Biden isn't having it.

In the recent ABC interview that Biden did, the president was asked whether he would be "willing to undergo an independent medical evaluation that included neurological and cognit-- cognitive tests and release the results to the American people?"

Biden replied, "Look. I have a cognitive test every single day. Every day I have that test. Everything I do."

After some back and forth with the interviewer, Biden said that he would not undergo a cognitive test because he's "already done it."