Raskin calls for Trump to take cognitive test in wake of Iran threats as Democrats question president’s fitness

By Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — Rep. Jamie Raskin is calling on the White House physician to conduct a cognitive test of President Donald Trump amid his heightened rhetoric about the US war with Iran.

The Maryland Democrat joins a growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers – and some right-wing personalities – who have expressed concern in recent days over the president’s approach to, and public statements on, the conflict. Democrats, in particular, have questioned Trump’s fitness for office.

“In recent days, the country has watched President Trump’s public statements and outbursts turn increasingly incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening,” Raskin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, wrote in a letter obtained by CNN.

Raskin pointed to a number of reasons for raising his concern, including Trump’s expletive-ridden Easter Sunday post calling on Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, his comments to children about the Iran war at the White House Easter Egg Roll and his statement that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran did not agree to his terms of a deal under deadline.

While unlikely to yield much of a result – the president, after all, often boasts about acing cognitive tests and the White House physician declared him in “excellent health” at his annual physical – the letter comes as many in the Democratic Party, and even some notable MAGA figures, have gone so far as to suggest Trump should be removed through the 25th Amendment or impeachment.

To successfully remove Trump as president, a majority of his Cabinet and his vice president would have to move to invoke the 25th Amendment. And there are no indications any Cabinet officials are considering it, or that Vice President JD Vance would be on board. Raskin was set to lead a briefing for House Democrats about the 25th Amendment on Friday.

“At a time when our country is at war—especially when the war was initiated by the President without congressional declaration or consent—the American people must be able to trust that the Commander-in-Chief has the mental capacity to discharge the essential duties of his office,” Raskin wrote. “I therefore request that you conduct a comprehensive cognitive assessment of President Donald Trump, provide those results to Congress, and make yourself available to brief Congress on your findings.”

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

Raskin argued that Republicans had helped set a precedent for him to make such a request.

House Republicans, he wrote, had focused on former President Joe Biden’s apparent cognitive decline and interviewed Biden’s White House physician.

“Republicans and Democrats alike have recognized that presidential cognitive fitness is a matter of urgent and essential public concern and that it warrants rigorous congressional oversight. Calling former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity ‘one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history,’ Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer actually subpoenaed the White House physician and issued a comprehensive staff report on the subject,” Raskin wrote.

He continued: “Judiciary Committee Chairman Jordan declared that a president who is not cognitively fit ‘isn’t fit for office.’ I trust that both Chairmen will stand by this important principle today with the country in an uproar over the President’s recent fulminations and mad threats.”

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CNN’s Donald Judd and Aaron Blake contributed to this report.