Radio Host David Pakman Says Donald Trump's Use of Prompt Card Shows 'Exact' Cognitive Issues Republicans Criticized in Joe Biden

Progressive talk radio host David Pakman called out right-wing media and Republican figures for a stark double standard regarding presidential cognitive fitness, noting that photographs of President Donald Trump clutching a staff-prepared briefing card mirror the exact "cheat sheet" moments they previously used to claim former President Joe Biden suffered from advanced dementia.

During an Oval Office meeting honoring a young lifeguard, the octogenarian president was photographed holding a prompt card featuring photos of his guests, along with explicit scheduling and talking-point instructions.

“Donald Trump was photographed using a cheat sheet, the exact same type of cheat sheet that Joe Biden was using when they said it’s proof that he’s got dementia,” Pakman said on his Tuesday, August 18, show. “And strangely, Donald Trump’s card has not triggered the same diagnosis from Republicans.”

Pakman pointed out that similar cards used by Biden during his presidency were aggressively highlighted, circled in red on cable news, and treated by conservative influencers as definitive proof of cognitive incapacity.

He argued that while standard presidential protocol involves staff preparing briefing notes for meetings, right-wing media outlets display intellectual dishonesty by ignoring identical behavior from Trump while weaponizing it against Biden.

“This is exactly the type of thing that Republicans used to say Biden had dementia,” he continued. “The pictures would be circled in red. ‘Biden needs pictures to know who he’s with.’ Fox News would be running it continuously, and right-wing influencers would be saying, ‘Did Biden know where he was? Did Biden know who he was with?’”

The radio host also added that these prompt cards don’t necessarily mean dementia.

”A card with names and pictures does not prove cognitive decline,” he said, before adding a caveat.

“But if it did prove it about Joe Biden, according to these people, it must also prove it about Donald Trump,” he continued. “Right now, this gets to a bigger story, which is that during Biden’s presidency, the right treated every glimpse of a note card as a medical emergency.”

Pakman highlighted the double standard in media coverage and political outrage, adding, “They do not care about being two-faced. I actually think they get off on it. They love that they employ double standards. They say one thing about Biden if they think it will be beneficial to them, and then they just laugh when we go, ‘Yeah, but Trump’s doing the exact same thing.’”

And the criticism isn’t exclusive to Biden, he noted.

“These are the very same people who attacked [Barack] Obama for golfing when he was president,” he said later, pointing to a new example of alleged hypocrisy. And now when Trump golfs, they go, ‘Oh, well, but Trump’s doing so much, he’s doing business on the golf course and all of this stuff,’” Pakman said before doing a deep dive.

Trump has publicly touted his own cognitive test scores as proof of extreme intelligence; critics point out that similar sweeping diagnoses or intense demands for independent neurological evaluations are not applied to him with the same political or media ferocity.

“When Biden used the teleprompter, it was evidence that he couldn’t think,” he said. “When Trump uses a teleprompter at every d--- speech, it’s no big deal. Now, there are legitimate reasons to examine Donald Trump’s fitness, and 60 percent of voters don’t think he has the mental sharpness to be president,” he said.

“Presidents use briefing materials. What this proves is these Republicans don’t believe their own stupid standards. Because when Biden held a card, it was a national emergency. And when Trump holds one, he’s a very busy guy,” he concluded.