Although there are lots of variables remaining unclear heading into the midterm elections this year and on to the U.S. presidential elections in 2020, one thing remains clear — prominent lawyer Michael Avenatti has no apparent intention of going away anytime soon. Wednesday, the lawyer turned public figure claimed President Donald Trump to be suffering from warning signs of dementia, questioning why he’d ever accepted the job in the first place in light of his supposedly severely sub-par physical condition.
Avenatti asserted:
‘Donald Trump is in the worst physical shape of any modern President and is starting to exhibit signs of dementia. Shouldn’t we expect the POTUS to maintain a minimal level of physical and mental fitness? If he didn’t have the stamina for the job, he shouldn’t have taken it.’
Avenatti is not the first to challenge either the president’s physical or mental condition and he surely won’t be the last.
When the no longer government employed Dr. Ronny Jackson handed down his physical assessment of the president, some challenged his reporting on Trump’s weight, suggesting it had to be higher.
Ironically enough, Jackson eventually “went down,” losing a path to becoming Secretary of Veterans Affairs under the weight of allegations of abusing his position as White House physician. He’s alleged to have carried on with travesties like handing out opioids under the table and getting so drunk the Secret Service had to try and get him under control while on an overseas trip. He denied the allegations against him, but exited the running to be the next VA Secretary anyway. The task of replacing David Shulkin eventually fell to Robert Wilkie.
That’s not where scrutiny involving the president’s physical and mental fitness for office ends though — far from it. Way back at the beginning of this year, author Michael Wolff came out with Fire and Fury, a book that challenged the White House to the point of prompting Trump’s infamous — and repeated — defense that he’s a “stable genius.”
Former staffer Omarosa Manigault-Newman has also challenged Trump’s mental state with her own book, Unhinged, claiming him to gradually be getting more and more — well, unhinged.
The issue remains one of many that Avenatti or any other candidate could use to challenge Trump in 2020 presidential elections.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
