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The Jim Acosta Show
Jim Takes the Cognitive Test with Doctor Rob Davidson... Plus Steve Schmidt on Remembering the Fallen on Memorial Day Weekend
01:08:52
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- [00:00]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Foreign.
- [00:06]
Jim Acosta
Welcome to the Jim Acosta show. It's another day that ends in Y and Donald Trump's continued corruption in Washington. It is my pleasure to have my friend Steve Schmidt back with us for another edition of. Oh, Schmidt, it's Friday. Steve, good to see you, man.
- [00:21]
Steve Schmidt
Good to see you, Jim.
- [00:23]
Jim Acosta
And, and Steve, you know, I think that this is, this has been a hell of a week in, in our nation's history. We, I, I feel like the, the hood is off. Maybe it's already been off Donald Trump for, for some time now in terms of just revealing how thoroughly corrupt he is. But this deal that he's cut for himself with Todd Blanche, it's not even with Todd Blanche, it's with himself. And, you know, to this IRS DOJ deal, the slush fund that he's created, along with this immunity he's given himself. I mean, it is, it's just so out of bounds and so far from what, you know, the founders intended, from what anybody has, you know, any sense of, in terms of what our democracy should be, that even Republicans in the Senate are balking. And I think some Republicans in the House are balking. And so this is kind of accidentally become a defining moment, it seems almost for, for Trump. What do you think? What have you made it this week and this sleazy slush fund deal that you set up?
- [01:32]
Steve Schmidt
I have, I have, I have three reactions to it, which is the first one is entirely cultural, and it's just a function of where I'm from in my age. But having grown up in New Jersey and being 55 years old, that means that I've had Donald Trump embedded culturally in my frontal lobe against my will since age 8, from the art of the deal board games and everything. And for 12 years, I've spoken out against this and have tried to predict whatever abomination is coming next. And, you know, I put my record up of doing that, you know, against anyone, but you still can't imagine, right. What the next abomination is going to be in the detail of it.
- [02:28]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [02:29]
Steve Schmidt
The audacity of it's going to be. So at one level, I'm not surprised yet I remain shocked that Donald Trump actually is trying to steal $1.8 billion to hand out as a slush fund to encourage basically political violence with grants to the proud boys and the Oath Keepers and pardons and so on and so forth, and to any conspirator who dare to raise their hand against the Constitution. Right is what it is. And so it should be opposed. It should be stopped. It will be stopped because the American people's judgment on all of us is going to be brutal. The polling numbers are collapsing. I have been on the show here every Friday for a long stretch now, and one of the things I've said is he's going to get down to about a 30% approval. And he is at a 30% approval. It's an incredible political achievement, a very dubious one, but he's there. The country is rebelling against it.
- [03:40]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [03:40]
Steve Schmidt
Well tolerated. This corrupt Republican Congress has abided this, permitted it, and now is going to try to bring it to heel, but it's too late. And at the end of the day, my last thing about this is it just raises the question, 250th year of the country of our independence, whether we're going to tolerate it or not.
- [04:05]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, I agree.
- [04:07]
Steve Schmidt
People can tolerate this.
- [04:09]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. No, no question. And we're heading into, you know, the Memorial Day weekend, and it is Memorial Day weekend. And, you know, my, my grandparents on my mom's side are, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. This is a weekend we're supposed to remember the fallen in this country. You know, those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, served our country. And, you know, this is not why they served. This is not why they sacrificed. And, you know, to me, just to play off of what you were saying a few moments ago, Steve, the Republicans, as my mother used to say, you make your bed, you lie in it. And the Republicans have refused, they, they have made a decision and refused to reign in Donald Trump this entire time, this entire second term up until this point. And he has delivered to them a shit sandwich of a deal with this IRS get out of jail free card. I, this is my question to you, Steve. One is, it's two parts. If you can play off a little bit of what this means to our country in terms of this being Memorial Day weekend. And two, I don't know which part is worse. The slush fund. The slush fund is outrageous. It's disgusting. You know, I, I, you know, I think it's outrageous that January sixers and so on could apply to this thing and other thugs and creeps in Donald Trump's orbit. But I don't know what's worth that or the get out of jail free aspect of this, that he cannot be audited, that he can't be pursued in any kind of way. It's Putin like it is, it's, it's Banana Republic like it's not, it's not at all an America. It's an un American thing that he has tried to shove down all of our throats. This shit sandwich. Your thoughts?
- [06:01]
Steve Schmidt
Well, so this is a weekend where we should remember that about 1 million Americans gave a blood sacrifice. The last full measure of devotion is what Abraham Lincoln called it, to the preservation of the Union. There's only ever been 700 million of us. About half of us who have ever been are alive right now. So we have a choice to make. One of the things that personally I thought, like, might induce a seizure when I read about it was Kash Patel snorkeling at the USS Arizona.
- [06:49]
Jim Acosta
Yes.
- [06:50]
Steve Schmidt
Which is a tomb that has 1800 sailors within it. Just the legacy of desecration is unbelievable. And whether it's been military cemeteries in Europe, whether it's been Arlington itself, whether it's been the USS Arizona, whether it's been on the tarmac at Dover, the affront to decency, to sacrifice, it never abates ever, ever, ever, the degradations visited on all that is hallowed, all that is sacred, all that's important in the preservation of the life of the republic. And I think about when you understand the period of history that is coming to an end, that Donald Trump has imploded our alliances in Europe, the bonds of free peoples that. That go back is that all of the American military cemeteries where American families made the decision to leave their loved ones interned in the soil of the nations where they fell, these small slices of American territory where our war dead are buried, all of the graves in the cemeteries, and notably in vividly, in the Normandy cemetery. Yeah, those graves all face west back towards home. And this is an army of liberation, of young Americans aligned in perfect symmetry, facing west. And we should contemplate our responsibility, our obligations in this moment in time. In 1936, Franklin Roosevelt, speaking to the Democratic National Convention, said, there's a peculiar rhythm in history that of some generations, much is given. Of others, much is required, much is expected. And of this generation, right, he said, we have a rendezvous with destiny. And so there's a generation of Americans born in comfort and privilege and marinated and all of the prerogatives that came from the preeminence of American power that have been laid waste to and over the next, literally generation, it will be a struggle to recover from the damage that Donald Trump has done and arson that he has done to. To so much. But, yeah, purpose and cause of our politics, right, is. Is very much now defined by what we do from here in the aftermath of this. And that starts with recognizing this Memorial Day Weekend, we're in the middle of a live war with Iran that we're losing.
- [10:14]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [10:14]
Steve Schmidt
And we'll soon officially lose. And that's a terrible thing for the security of the world.
- [10:21]
Jim Acosta
There's no question, Steve. And, and all of the reports, all of the credible, you know, credible reports from the mainstream press folks that I trust indicate now that the Iranians are going to be emboldened by this, that they're rebuilding their military, their military capabilities a lot faster than we perhaps anticipated. The, the, I shouldn't say we, the Trump administration and anticipated. And I think you're absolutely right. And this is a totally destabilizing thing and I think that's why the danger is present that they're going to launch this another, yet another war of choice against Cuba. And we should talk about that a little bit because with Cuba it's a totally different can of worms. This is not Venezuela, this is not Iran. This is 90 miles off Arkansas, our coast. And you know, being half Cuban myself, and I've been there three times and done some reporting down there, I mean this is an island that is suffering immensely right now. There's a mat. They have a massive generational, you know, problem with electricity, with just giving basic needs to the people of that country. The level of hunger in that country is just, it's, it's astronomical. And, and my sense of it is, is that they're going to perhaps, I mean they're going to unleash a humanitarian crisis that we, that, that the Trump administration, I shouldn't say we, because people are predicting this that they just did not even think about or plan for and that this could be yet another self inflicted wound slash disaster that they're going to just do it all on their own and that the country is going to have to clean up after. And you know, and, and, and oh, by the way, you have the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, who is just completely not up to the job and just comes across as a rank amateur. You know, they put out this video of him the other day. You know, it's animated. It has Hegseth standing in front of this green screen and it shows all of this. We can show some of this here. You know, I don't know what the hell he's doing. Is that supposed to be the Pentagon? Doesn't even look like the Pentagon and it's just goofy like Bush league stuff. But your thoughts on, on this because you're absolutely right, this is relevant this Memorial Day weekend.
- [12:44]
Steve Schmidt
I think Pete Hag Seth is broken the US Military in ways that we really don't fully understand and can appreciate. I think he did it quickly. And there's a lot of evidence to suggest that this was a highly stressed institution. After two failed wars, 20 plus years at war, you have some real rot in some of the elite units in the military. The, the Navy Seals for, for example, most notoriously, a lot of culture issues, the veneration, for example, of Eddie Gallagher a war criminal, the ethos of the military, honor based and all of that has been washed in the Trump filth. And a lot of damage, I fear, is been done. What John McCain would say is, is no damage is like the damage of a lost war. If he was, he was here. And irrefutably, we've lost a war that's given Iran a territorial claim now on the Straits of Hormuz that is sanctioned by the reality of all of the nations, including South Korea and Japan, that are lined up to negotiate transit fees with Iran. That didn't exist before because before then the supremacy of the US Navy, untested, was unchallenged about the right to navigate through an international waterway. No more. The Supreme Leader has made clear that the uranium will stay in Iran. Trump has backed down. He wisely will not commit United States to a ground invasion of Iran. But he has, along with Netanyahu, destabilized the entirety of the, of the region. And one of the things that will be a result of this is the total collapse in both word and in letter of the law of these Abraham Accords, which were produced by a nitwit Jared Kushner, that made no mention of the Palestinians. And the Palestinians can't be excluded from the future of the Middle East. So at some level, this drops the final curtain on the consequences. Right. What would the, what would all. What would happen if you let loose the soft handed, privileged son of a felon named Jared Kushner is America's de facto chief diplomat in the Middle Middle east over a two presidential terms for many years. And now, now, you know, and, and what you see is the contours of truly an epic disaster that will have repercussions to play out over decades.
- [16:06]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, No, I mean, it seems to me the Abraham Accords was, was mainly intended to make Jared Kushner a lot of money commercial. Right. And you're absolutely right. The fact that they did not ever want to deal with the Palestinian issue because that's the hard work. That's what, that's what Bill Clinton found out in, in the late 90s you know, when they, they tried, you know, with the Aster Arafat and Nehud Barak to craft a land for peace deal. And you know that it's hard work to, to get to that point. And there is no solving this issue without getting to the Palestinian question. There's just no question about it. You know, the one thing I want to do, though, is I want to circle back to the, to this very corrupt fund, slush fund deal that Donald Trump made for himself. And because I want to get back to, you know, the Republicans and how they've just completely capitulated to Donald Trump and they've, they've feathered their own dirty nest. Tom Emmer was on CNBC in the morning and he was asked about this and was stammering all over himself when he was asked about this. But I think this, this, this typifies the congressional Republicans in this moment. Let's play this and talk about on the other side, because I think this is important.
- [17:23]
Andrew
So we're all clear, you support the settlement that the president made with. Some people would say he made with himself, others would say he was with the AG Is. You're supportive of that. You feel like that's, that was, it's
- [17:39]
Jim Acosta
totally on the up and up.
- [17:40]
Andrew
And then the secondary part, of course. Can I just, can you hear me?
- [17:44]
Tom Emmer
I can hear.
- [17:45]
Jim Acosta
You couldn't. You should say.
- [17:47]
Tom Emmer
No, no, I can hear you. Again, as Rebecca and I were just talking about, let's see, what is it? It is when it comes over to the House, the Senate's got to get their work done, Andrew. And you're asking me to pass judgment on something. No, no, no.
- [17:59]
Andrew
The settlement unto itself. The settlement unto itself. Putting, Putting aside. No, I'm not talking about the Justice Fund. I'm just saying the settlement that was made between the President and the administration. I mean, that's what's happened here. Do you, do you look at that and say, that's totally fine. You support, you support how that was done?
- [18:22]
Tom Emmer
Well, I wasn't in the room, so I don't know what the details are, but I can tell you this. Donald Trump, no one knows what weaponization of government against him and his family better than Donald Trump. He was absolutely raped by these people for years, and the American public knows it. Andrew. I suspect that whatever agreement was made, it's fair on both sides of the agreement, but I wasn't.
- [18:46]
Jim Acosta
What a crock of shit. What a complete crock of shit. This is all because Donald Trump's feelings got hurt because he was raped by These guys. Steve, you used to work for John McCain, who was, you know, could not have been more insulted by Donald Trump. Donald Trump has gotten everything he deserves, it seems to me, and, and he's going to get more, it seems to me, because he, he, he, he has put himself in this position, he's put that party in that position. But you can see how much trouble Tom Emmer is had having there answering that question.
- [19:16]
Steve Schmidt
I, I want to. Tom Ammerson is a version of Pastor Paula speaking in tongues.
- [19:26]
Jim Acosta
Right.
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Steve Schmidt
Knock a lock, a lock, a locka lock in Jesus name. Right. It's all a fraud.
- [19:32]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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Steve Schmidt
It's all a scam. And one of the most offensive aspects of this entire era is that I have to look at him and pretend to take him seriously, that he has a serious title and job, and there he is on television and he's allowed to filibuster without being cut off. And that's a farce. It's a performance.
- [20:02]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, right.
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Steve Schmidt
A titillation. Right. A provocation. I'll poke my finger right into your chest and act like you're crazy for objecting to Trump's corruption and slush fund despite a volume of evidence and quotes to make clear you understand exactly every detail of every aspect of everything about all of it, and yet you've succumb because you're a coward. And it's just awful to watch. But we shouldn't pretend that there's legitimacy in the interview, that there's legitimacy in the show, that there's legitimacy in the man. And what he's done has, has created great harm to the United States, to the country. He's faithless, he's despicable. He's an appalling American leader in history, to the extent will recall him. It will recall him terribly.
- [21:17]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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Steve Schmidt
And, and a man with no character who, when his state was invaded, when his citizens were murdered, stood squarely on the side of the. One of the great whack jobs that even Trump threw over the rail. Greg Beino, just an awful, low, pathetic guy.
- [21:41]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, it is. It's just pathetic. And I, you know, I try not to, you know, paint too, too much with a broad brush, but, you know, the House of Representatives used to be something in this country, you know, when it was led by the likes of Tip o', Neill, it used to be something in this country, and it's just been reduced to like an overgrown college Republican club. You know, they're, they're not, none of, they're just, none of them are serious. They're Just. Just completely unserious people. Before we go, I was thinking that we should. We should get into Memorial Day weekend a little bit. I know we talked about somewhat earlier, but just because of the fact that you brought up Normandy, you know, I do want to mention, you know, you know, I've had a couple of trips to Normandy with Obama and Trump. And, you know, Steve, you're absolutely right. It is. It is an extraordinary place. We saw flyovers there. We saw, you know, a couple of times I've been there. It just. Just about brings you to your knees in awe of the sacrifices made there. And, you know, it was occurring to me, Steve, while we were talking. I mean, you had a very close relationship with John McCain. And, you know, just to contrast, you know, just the ridiculous nature of the House Republicans right now with somebody like a John McCain, that's when the Republican Party was something in this country, John McCain. And, you know, I've been to Hanoi, been to the Hanoi Hilton. You know, see the. Seen the images John McCain on display there. You know, it is. It is really stirring what he went through, of course, during his time in captivity during the Vietnam War. But the thing that you and I have talked about and we don't talk about enough is what our young people are absorbing in this moment right now. And you almost have to tell them there was a time before Donald Trump when there were honorable men, when there were men who made sacrifices, who didn't just think about themselves first, didn't think about their political party first, that put the country first. That. That used to be something in this country, and you. You had very close proximity to it. So I'm just curious, you know, your thoughts on all of this heading into this, into this Memorial Day weekend.
- [24:07]
Steve Schmidt
I. I think that as Americans, particularly in the 250th anniversary of the country, we have to. We have to appreciate that both John McCain and John Adams are not coming back. But there are key lessons that are part of a continuum that stretch across the whole story of America. And there are two sides, vividly so in this moment, and this moment is a test. And on one side, there is the American proposition, and on the other side is the MAGA proposition. And they're antithetical to one another, and they're not compatible with one another, and they never, ever will be. And the submission to a man who disdains what the country is about, from his false claims of a stolen election to the constancy of his threats of retribution and revenge and violence, all of it, the submission to it is Appalling and despicable and cowardly. And it will be rung up high by the high court of history there. There are three profound warnings that have been issued over the course of the history of the country by its leaders. And interestingly, they come from military men who held the nation's highest office. Two of them were from George Washington. In his farewell, he said, beware of foreign entanglements. And he said, beware about the danger of faction political parties. The danger was that there could be some force, some entity that would overpower patriotism, a love of country, right? The love of the faction, the love of the party. I served as a staffer in the House of Representatives where overwhelmingly, in the era of Chairman John Dingell, the loyalty of those people was even before their party to the institution, to the House and to the concept of it. And all of that has been obliterated as the House because of the fidelity to the faction, has become a politburo and has gutted its own power as a co. Equal branch of. Of government. The other warning that. That matters a great deal is the one that was issued by Eisenhower. And I'd encourage Everybody go on YouTube and watch the Cronkite interview of Dwight Eisenhower in 1964, 20 years on from. From D Day, when he returns as a former president to those, to those, to those beaches and tells. Tells the story of the day. What he warned about was a military industrial complex, right? And you see that with Peter Thiel and the tech executives and the unaccountability of the AI Palantir, all of it. And so we, the people like this Memorial Day weekend, we have to decide. We have to decide. That guy that you just played, that, that Tom Emmer, you know, I can't do anything about him in Minnesota.
- [28:23]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Right?
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Steve Schmidt
But, but man. Or I don't know if his voters are fools or what, but we as the country are going to repudiate this. They, they as a whole will be in the minority. And we have to demand, not that the Democrats now get their license for lawlessness and stealing, but we have to, we have to demand a restoration of the rule of law in the republic. Right? That's what this is about. And, and it's big stuff on, on this Memorial Day. And there's a lot of faithlessness to the highest concepts of virtue and valor that are the lifeblood of any Nation. What John McCain would tell you is that the, the country needs the virtues, valor, patriotism, love to sustain itself like a fish needs water, like a human being needs oxygen.
- [29:30]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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Steve Schmidt
And and, and that's what we should think about this Memorial Day in a season of vast desecrations to a lot of things that we supposedly value in all dear.
- [29:42]
Jim Acosta
No question about it. Very well said, Steve, as always, you, you hit the nail right on the head and remind us that, that, you know, I think, I think of that expression that John McCain would use from time to time that you have to believe in a cause bigger than oneself. And I, I'd love to see a candidate get out there, some candidates get, get out there and talk about that. Not just engage in towel snapping with Donald Trump and, and that sort of thing, but get back to that. Not cause bigger than ourselves here. And it's to continue what was passed on to us. That is, that is always the cause, it seems to me and Steve, you always remind us of that. Thank you very much, Jim. Good to be with you, Jim.
- [30:28]
Steve Schmidt
And Jim, I just want to say, can I just say, please, I support if, if we are going to have a revenge fund.
- [30:35]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
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Steve Schmidt
I support your claim 100%. And I come up with a number that you deserve, I think.
- [30:43]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Right.
- [30:44]
Steve Schmidt
I think that numbers. That numbers at least $137 million. And
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Jim Acosta
I like that now. It's a good number.
- [30:53]
Steve Schmidt
100%.
- [30:54]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And in case folks missed it, I, I wrote a little substack, put it out there and I guess it made some waves that. Yes, I, I would like to apply for the anti weaponization fund. The government was weaponized against me. It's been, it was weaponized against all of us controvertibly. It's been weaponized against all of us in various different ways, but there it is right there. Yeah. I mean, they did take away my press pass. They did intend to destroy my career. There's no question about it. They really were so pissed at me during that first term. And they're still pissed. They're still pissed at us, Steve. It's funny. We're, you know, you and I, we, we do this now, you know, we're not on cable news all the time and that sort of thing, and they still can't get it out of their heads. It's, it's, I guess it's an honor to live in those left of their heads.
- [31:43]
Steve Schmidt
For sure. Like your grandkids will talk about it. Like, you know, like, you know, there's gonna be a lot of people like, who's. Oh, your grandmother was Megan Kelly.
- [31:55]
Jim Acosta
Not so good.
- [31:56]
Steve Schmidt
Not so good.
- [31:57]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. Steve, I think your grandkids and extended family will be saying the same of you in A very, very good way, in a very honorable way. Steve, thanks a lot. Really appreciate it. Jim, thanks for reminding us of the importance of this weekend. Always good to talk to you. Thanks so much. And, you know, it is. I guess I wasn't planning on talking about this again. I don't know what the correct dollar figure is, honestly. I think the whole thing is a farce. This anti weaponization fund. It's a farce in that Donald Trump himself is the king of government weaponization. And so I just, you know, you know, somebody told me, you know, Jim, you should apply for this thing. And I thought, you know what? I should apply for that thing. That sounds pretty damn good. And of course, you know, if it all comes to pass, which, which it never will, they. That's. That's what, that's part of the reason why I wrote the piece is to highlight what a joke it is that they, they will never dole out money to victims of Donald Trump's government weaponization. James Comey's not getting a check from Donald Trump. Letitia James is not getting a check from Donald Trump. People like that are not getting a check from Donald Trump. This, this whole thing is a big joke. And speaking of that, a special holiday treat heading into the holiday weekend. You know, one of the things that we talk about quite often on the show, in part because they won't talk about it in the corporate media, is that Donald Trump is becoming more out to lunch every single day. He has, he has problems staying awake in cabinet meetings, in the Oval Office. He, he routinely just says things that do not make any sense. I've been harping all week long about how he wants to have a drone port on top of the White House. I mean, that doesn't make any sense. Of course he wants to build this ballroom, which doesn't make any sense. The arch painting, the bottom of the reflecting pool. I mean, it's all, you know, we talk about the monuments around Washington, D.C. these are all monuments to Donald Trump losing his marbles. Having said all of that, he does like to brag from time to time that he takes all these cognitive tests and he claims he aces them. And, you know, in part, this is a little bit of a serious subject because there are a lot of, you know, a lot of families who go through this who deal with aging relatives and so on. And there always comes a moment, almost always comes a moment in a family where they have to deal with an aging relative and cognitive decline and so on. But because Donald Trump talks about this so much and he seems to confuse it with an IQ test. I think there's been a lot of confusion in the public's mind as to what the hell is going on with these cognitive tests. So I thought, because, you know, this is independent media and a bit of a journalism experiment from time to time, and we like to do things a little differently here on the show, I thought, why don't. How about I go out there and take a cognitive test? So, yes, I took the test, and I got together with Dr. Rob Davidson of Paging America. He administered the test and was very kind to do this. And I have my results right here. I will just tell you right now that I did pass the test. If I had not passed the test, we would have a major problem, because this is not an IQ test. This is about cognitive decline. And so, of course, somebody like myself, I'm in my 50s, I'm doing okay, I'm pretty healthy, I exercise, I'm of sound mind. Of course, spoiler alert, I passed the test. But we wanted to see what it was like to do it. And so we sat down in a nearby studio and had Dr. Rob Davidson administer to me the MOCA, as it's called, Cognitive Test. And, well, let's just, let's take a look, everybody. There's been a lot of conversation about Donald Trump and his cognitive tests. He brings it up all the time. Just the other day, he was talking about how he had aced another cognitive test. He seems to be confusing it with the IQ test. I'm not sure what that's all about, but he really likes to talk about this cognitive test, and it's relevant right now because the Atlantic just came out with a story about the fact that Trump is turning 80 a little later this year, as a matter of fact, next month. And so all of this is now a big part of the conversation here in Washington, Trump's cognitive health. Let's talk about this. I've got Dr. Rob Davidson with me. He is the host of Paging America, and he is also with the Committee to Protect Health Care Healthcare in America. And Dr. Rob, great to see you, as always. And you're here for a special reason. You are going to help me take one of these cognitive tests, the cognitive test that we think Donald Trump claims he's been taking.
- [36:48]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Yeah, well, I'm not gonna help you.
- [36:49]
Jim Acosta
You're not gonna help me.
- [36:50]
Dr. Rob Davidson
My job here is to administer the test.
- [36:52]
Jim Acosta
That's good.
- [36:53]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Yeah. And I think at least once, I believe last year, they did report this specific test. It's called Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Okay. So it's MOCA is how people refer to it. It's probably the most common cognitive test that physicians or other providers administer to patients when there's a concern about their cognition. You know, there's a concern they may be slipping. So, yeah, we're going to do this and see how you do and see how you feel about the test.
- [37:19]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And there are concerns that Trump is slipping. I mean, let's just be honest about this. And. And I guess he feels the need before we get started. Dr. Rob. He feels the need to go out there and say he keeps passing these cognitive tests, but the fact that he keeps taking them is kind of worrisome, is it not?
- [37:35]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Yeah. These are not standard screening tests that you just give to every person that walks in the door. It's not like a PSA for your prostate. Right. It's not like checking your hearing routinely. These are intended to be used when either a provider or maybe a family member or even an individual says, boy, I'm a little concerned. And it really tests for mild cognitive impairment. This is not a dementia test. This is not, you know, this is not severe cognitive impairment. This is like, hey, slipping a little bit, maybe concern. And then if it's abnormal, you maybe go on and get more testing, see more specialists. But. And you usually don't administer them over and over, just routinely. It's. If you're concerned about something, and I
- [38:12]
Jim Acosta
just want to make some disclaimers. I've had no chemical enhancements. I've had no Diet Cokes. And since about 1 o' clock this afternoon, you were with me this afternoon. I've just been drinking water. No Red Bulls, no other energy drinks, nothing like that. I don't have a body man who works for me who's going to give me the answers if that's what's going on. I don't know.
- [38:32]
Dr. Rob Davidson
No earpieces.
- [38:32]
Jim Acosta
No earpieces. There are no earpieces right here. But I am going to take this test. And of course, we should mention at the beginning there should be no wagering, no betting on Poly Market or any of these things.
- [38:42]
Dr. Rob Davidson
We don't have an over under. And this is purely for information purposes.
- [38:46]
Tom Emmer
Right.
- [38:46]
Dr. Rob Davidson
We're not trying to diagnose anything. I think that's really important. I think if people are concerned, like, they shouldn't be using this as their. As the way that they administered this to their family members. Like, go see your provider, go see your physician if you have one, and, you know, get checked out.
- [39:00]
Jim Acosta
We're doing this to drive home a point that this is not something that a president should be bragging about, that he aces these tests. And also, just to see what it's like, I mean, I've been wondering, why. What is this? What is it like? How does it work? So I guess we should. Should we do it?
- [39:16]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I think let's go ahead. And I can. I can hold up. It's called the mocha. This is version 8.1, I believe there's three of them. I mean, people can search this out online. You can find them everywhere, particularly nowadays. The first part is going to be you doing a few things, and I can explain what the task is. First part here, there's a pattern. They show with the arrows, a pattern. And you. You just have to kind of figure out what is that pattern and then follow the pattern.
- [39:41]
Jim Acosta
Very good. So I see 1A, and then it goes to 2. And so then I take it from there.
- [39:46]
Dr. Rob Davidson
You take it from there, whatever you think is next, and then finish it out.
- [39:49]
Jim Acosta
So should I start this now and. And I'll. I'll move to the next thing and you'll tell me what the next thing is? I guess I will. I'll explain the next one, and we'll do that. All right, so it looks like. I think I can solve this. Can I buy val? No, I'm just kidding.
- [40:02]
Steve Schmidt
All right.
- [40:02]
Jim Acosta
All right, dad, joke alert. All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, let's see. I think I'm gonna go here next to B. And then I think I'm gonna go down here to three, and I'm gonna go here to C. And then I'm gonna go here to 4, and then here to D, and then here to 5, and here to E. All right,
- [40:24]
Dr. Rob Davidson
we're not going to give you score as you go here.
- [40:26]
Jim Acosta
Okay. Do I go back to the beginning or anything like that? No.
- [40:29]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Okay, we're done with the task. All right, so the second one that you have to do on your own is there's a cube here. And you just have to draw that cube. Copy the cube.
- [40:38]
Jim Acosta
Right, Copy the cube. All right. I used to do some doodling back in the day, so he's always hard for me. Yeah. But I remember I, you know, because I didn't really pay attention in class, and so I would do this a lot. I think that looks. That looks pretty good there. I think that looks all right. In my personal opinion, I. It could have been neater, but.
- [40:57]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Well, you're not an artist. It's just for the, you know, kind of.
- [40:59]
Jim Acosta
There's no artistic score here.
- [41:01]
Dr. Rob Davidson
No score.
- [41:01]
Jim Acosta
Okay. Just the technical score.
- [41:03]
Dr. Rob Davidson
If I was the judge of art, I think we'd be in trouble.
- [41:05]
Jim Acosta
No East German judges are standing by or anything like that. It's a dated joke. I'm sorry.
- [41:09]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So next is that you have to draw a clock. And just. You can look at up here. But listen closely. Draw a clock and then have it say, show it at 10 past 11.
- [41:19]
Jim Acosta
10 past 11. All right. And let's see here.
- [41:24]
Dr. Rob Davidson
And you can draw it as complete
- [41:25]
Jim Acosta
as draw a circle like that. So noon. Both hands would be like this. That would be one. So if it's 10 past 11, and maybe do.
- [41:33]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Do the whole clock before you do the time.
- [41:35]
Jim Acosta
Oh, should I do that? Maybe I'll do that. All right, let's do that.
- [41:39]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I think it makes it easier, and I think it's definitely within.
- [41:42]
Jim Acosta
See, I was going to do it.
- [41:44]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Don't do a free form. Don't handicap yourself. All right, and then 10 past 11.
- [41:48]
Jim Acosta
10 past 11. I'll do the little shorthand here, and I'll do the long hand. That's technically a long hand. I just want everybody to know. All right, that's a long hand. That's a shorthand. I don't want any. Anybody in the peanut gallery judging me here on my. So you said 10 past 11. Am I allowed to. If I. If I do something too fast, can I look at it very quickly before handing it back to you to make sure I did it right?
- [42:09]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Yeah, for sure.
- [42:10]
Jim Acosta
I think I did that one. Okay, very good.
- [42:12]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Now, this is the last part where you going to have access to the test, and I'm going to hide it from you, and I'm going to be asking you questions.
- [42:17]
Jim Acosta
Okay?
- [42:18]
Dr. Rob Davidson
So this is just. You have to name these three animals that you see here.
- [42:22]
Jim Acosta
Name these three animals.
- [42:23]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Name the animals.
- [42:24]
Jim Acosta
And that's it. That's it. I don't have to draw the animal.
- [42:28]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Don't tell me what the sound they make.
- [42:29]
Jim Acosta
All right, this is interesting. I think this is pretty clear what these animals are. I believe this is a lion.
- [42:36]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Okay.
- [42:37]
Jim Acosta
I believe that is a rhinoceros.
- [42:39]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Okay.
- [42:40]
Jim Acosta
And I think that's a squirrel. No, I'm kidding. I think that's a camel.
- [42:42]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Okay.
- [42:43]
Jim Acosta
Our jokes allowed.
- [42:44]
Dr. Rob Davidson
All right? Jokes are allowed?
- [42:45]
Jim Acosta
Yes.
- [42:45]
Dr. Rob Davidson
They don't affect the scoring.
- [42:47]
Jim Acosta
And then now Trump said something about a squirrel the other day, which is the squirrel, which I didn't understand that part.
- [42:53]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I don't know if some of them do have a squirrel. They have different animals on different Versions, I don't know.
- [42:57]
Jim Acosta
Okay, so maybe they vary a little
- [42:58]
Dr. Rob Davidson
bit that you could identify a squirrel?
- [43:01]
Jim Acosta
I think I can. There's a lot of squirrel.
- [43:03]
Dr. Rob Davidson
A lot of squirrels in New York.
- [43:04]
Jim Acosta
A lot of squirrels in New York. A lot of squirrely things here in
- [43:06]
Dr. Rob Davidson
D.C. oh, my gosh.
- [43:07]
Jim Acosta
I know, I know.
- [43:08]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I'm here visiting and talk about the swamp as A. It's 100 degrees today.
- [43:12]
Jim Acosta
That's right.
- [43:13]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Feels very swampy.
- [43:14]
Jim Acosta
Very warm. Very warm. The squirrels are in hiding.
- [43:16]
Dr. Rob Davidson
So this next part, I'm gonna name three objects. Okay. And then you have to just repeat those objects after me. You have to do it once.
- [43:24]
Jim Acosta
Name the three objects.
- [43:25]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I'm just gonna give you three objects.
- [43:27]
Jim Acosta
Okay.
- [43:28]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Their names, and you're gonna have to repeat them. Repeat them again. And this is probably the hardest part. In about five minutes, I'm going to ask you those three objects again.
- [43:38]
Jim Acosta
Oh, interesting. Okay.
- [43:39]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Yeah.
- [43:40]
Jim Acosta
This is like the man.
- [43:40]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Your daughter lost a point for this one. That's okay.
- [43:43]
Jim Acosta
Your. Your daughter a point because, you know, it's.
- [43:45]
Dr. Rob Davidson
It's a few minutes later, you're a little nervous, and you know, one of them you might get a little bit. That's okay.
- [43:50]
Jim Acosta
Okay. Okay.
- [43:51]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Passing this thing is. Is a 26 out of 30. So.
- [43:53]
Jim Acosta
Okay.
- [43:53]
Steve Schmidt
So.
- [43:54]
Dr. Rob Davidson
All right.
- [43:54]
Jim Acosta
All right. Yeah, I got a little nervous.
- [43:56]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Look at my transcript. I think that'd be pretty good. Okay, so, yeah. Three, five objects, you're gonna repeat them, and then you'll repeat them again.
- [44:03]
Jim Acosta
Okay?
- [44:03]
Dr. Rob Davidson
So face, velvet, church, daisy, red.
- [44:10]
Jim Acosta
Face, velvet, church, daisy, red.
- [44:15]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Okay.
- [44:16]
Jim Acosta
Face, velvet, daisy, church, red.
- [44:19]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Okay. Yeah. No order.
- [44:20]
Jim Acosta
This is hard.
- [44:22]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay.
- [44:24]
Jim Acosta
Wow.
- [44:25]
Dr. Rob Davidson
And now I need. I'm going to read off a list of. Now don't be nervous. I'm going to read off a list of digits.
- [44:29]
Jim Acosta
Okay.
- [44:30]
Dr. Rob Davidson
And the first list of digits, you just have to repeat them in the forward order the order that I say them.
- [44:34]
Jim Acosta
Okay.
- [44:35]
Dr. Rob Davidson
2, 1, 8, 5, 4.
- [44:39]
Jim Acosta
1, 2, 4, 5, 8.
- [44:43]
Dr. Rob Davidson
So repeat them in the order that I say them. Oh, sorry.
- [44:46]
Jim Acosta
Do it in the order that you said. Not. Not numerically as they are.
- [44:49]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Oh, yeah. Sorry. Sorry. No, that's fine. So in the order I say them.
- [44:53]
Jim Acosta
Ordering that you say them.
- [44:54]
Dr. Rob Davidson
That was actually pretty good. You might get extra point for that.
- [44:56]
Jim Acosta
Okay, very good.
- [44:56]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have thought of that.
- [44:58]
Jim Acosta
Just making sure. I'm keeping you on your toes here.
- [45:00]
Dr. Rob Davidson
All right, so repeat them in the forward. Or I'll say them.
- [45:02]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [45:03]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Two, one, eight, five, four.
- [45:05]
Jim Acosta
Two, one, eight, five, four.
- [45:07]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Okay, now I'M going to say three digits, and you just have to repeat them back to me backwards from the order that I give them to you.
- [45:13]
Jim Acosta
Repeat them backwards. Yeah, Got it.
- [45:15]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Seven, four, two, two, four, seven. All right, good. Okay, this one, you got to get your hand up on the table.
- [45:21]
Jim Acosta
Okay, Hands on the table.
- [45:22]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I'm going to read a list of letters. I think there's 20 or so here. And every time you hear the letter A, you have to tap. Just tap the table. Every time you hear the letter A.
- [45:31]
Jim Acosta
When I hear the letter A, I tap the table.
- [45:33]
Dr. Rob Davidson
And then don't tap it on any other letter.
- [45:35]
Jim Acosta
All right?
- [45:36]
Dr. Rob Davidson
F, B, A, C, M, N, A, A, J, K, L, B, A, F, A, K, D, E, A, A, a, J, A, M, O, F, A, A, B. All right, good. Now this one is math. Now, I know he talked about really complex math problems. Math. This is the math here on the thing.
- [46:12]
Jim Acosta
Interesting start. The guys in there who are our producers and people who are with us are kind of. They're making faces. They are. So I'm a little nervous now that I've screwed something up.
- [46:22]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Yeah, you're good.
- [46:23]
Jim Acosta
Is it all right? You're good.
- [46:24]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I think we're doing okay so far. I can't give you scores, but you're doing okay so far. All right, you're going to start at 100.
- [46:30]
Jim Acosta
And they're not. They're not coaching me in any way. You would. You would ve. As a medical professional, you would verify that.
- [46:35]
Dr. Rob Davidson
And I work with one of them a lot. I don't think it'd be a lot of help.
- [46:38]
Jim Acosta
Okay.
- [46:39]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Oh, sorry. Laughter from the.
- [46:41]
Jim Acosta
Laughter's okay. Yeah.
- [46:43]
Dr. Rob Davidson
All right, so you're going to start at 100, and it's called subtract by serial seven.
- [46:47]
Jim Acosta
So just subtract by seven from 100
- [46:50]
Dr. Rob Davidson
from 100 and keep.
- [46:51]
Jim Acosta
Just keep going and keep going. All right. 100, 93, 86, 79, 72, 65, 58, 51, 44, 37. Oh, okay, got it. Okay.
- [47:08]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I just wanted to see how far you go. Okay, so you got the negative. All right, so this one is testing language.
- [47:13]
Jim Acosta
Okay.
- [47:14]
Dr. Rob Davidson
And you just have to repeat what I say.
- [47:16]
Jim Acosta
Got it.
- [47:17]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I'm gonna take a drink because I want to get this.
- [47:18]
Jim Acosta
All right, let's do this. All right, good. I'll take a drink too. Work up a sweat doing this. Hot lights under the hot lights. There's a lot of pressure here.
- [47:25]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I know. For me, too. All right.
- [47:27]
Jim Acosta
There's a lot of pressure on you as well.
- [47:29]
Dr. Rob Davidson
We do. We want to make this authentic. And it is. So just repeat after me. Nothing more than that. I only know that John is the one to help today.
- [47:39]
Jim Acosta
I only know that John is the one to help today.
- [47:41]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Okay, this next one's a little longer. The cat always hid under the couch when dogs were in the room.
- [47:47]
Jim Acosta
The cat always hid under the couch when dogs were in the room.
- [47:50]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Okay, I'm going to mark those. So I remember those both. Good. Okay. And then this is testing abstraction. And you're just going to tell me. I'm going to tell you two things. And tell me how they're similar. Train. Bicycle.
- [48:03]
Jim Acosta
Modes of transportation.
- [48:04]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Good. And then watch. Ruler.
- [48:07]
Jim Acosta
Something you measure with.
- [48:09]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Okay. Okay. Now here is the delayed recall. Okay. These are those five objects.
- [48:15]
Jim Acosta
Oh, boy.
- [48:16]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Wow. And you have nothing.
- [48:17]
Jim Acosta
Wow. So go ahead and do the five objects.
- [48:21]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Do them as best you can. In no particular.
- [48:23]
Jim Acosta
Face, velvet, Red Church. Face red velvet Church.
- [48:37]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Face, red velvet Church.
- [48:40]
Jim Acosta
Ooh. Face red velvet Church.
- [48:43]
Dr. Rob Davidson
That's where my 1990.
- [48:44]
Jim Acosta
This is where she got hung up. Face, red velvet, Church. This is what I get for goofing around too much.
- [48:52]
Dr. Rob Davidson
That's okay.
- [48:53]
Jim Acosta
Tree. No, not tree.
- [48:55]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Okay, so you're close, so that's fine. I'm gonna give you a category.
- [48:58]
Jim Acosta
Q.
- [48:58]
Dr. Rob Davidson
You're allowed this.
- [48:59]
Jim Acosta
Okay. Okay.
- [49:00]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Type of flower.
- [49:02]
Jim Acosta
Daisy.
- [49:03]
Dr. Rob Davidson
There you go.
- [49:03]
Jim Acosta
Daisy. Okay, that's right.
- [49:05]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Good, good, good.
- [49:06]
Jim Acosta
Doggone it.
- [49:07]
Dr. Rob Davidson
This one.
- [49:07]
Jim Acosta
That's a specific one. I wasn't.
- [49:09]
Dr. Rob Davidson
That.
- [49:09]
Jim Acosta
That tripped me up a little bit. That's all right. So. So maybe. Maybe I am in decline.
- [49:13]
Dr. Rob Davidson
You're not in decline.
- [49:14]
Jim Acosta
Not in decline.
- [49:14]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I don't think so yet. Now we got. Still got six more points here. If you miss all of these, then we'll have to.
- [49:19]
Jim Acosta
Oh, okay. Now we're in trouble. All right.
- [49:20]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Talk to your family.
- [49:21]
Jim Acosta
I probably will have to go to the emergency room is what will have to happen.
- [49:24]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Now, this one to me is hard because I don't often know this.
- [49:27]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [49:27]
Dr. Rob Davidson
What is the date? You can say the month and the date.
- [49:31]
Jim Acosta
Today's date is the 19th of May.
- [49:33]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Okay. How about the year?
- [49:35]
Jim Acosta
It is 2026.
- [49:37]
Dr. Rob Davidson
And the day of the week?
- [49:38]
Jim Acosta
It is Tuesday.
- [49:39]
Dr. Rob Davidson
And what is this place? We're in.
- [49:41]
Jim Acosta
We're in a studio.
- [49:42]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Very good. And then what city are we in?
- [49:43]
Jim Acosta
We're in Washington, D.C. okay.
- [49:45]
Dr. Rob Davidson
So I'm gonna go ahead and score this.
- [49:48]
Jim Acosta
All right. Wow. Wait, are we done?
- [49:50]
Dr. Rob Davidson
We're done. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, you're done.
- [49:52]
Jim Acosta
Oh, my goodness.
- [49:53]
Dr. Rob Davidson
That's it.
- [49:54]
Jim Acosta
Wow.
- [49:54]
Dr. Rob Davidson
And it was like.
- [49:55]
Jim Acosta
That was. That was.
- [49:56]
Dr. Rob Davidson
While I'm doing this and while I'm doing this, like, how.
- [49:59]
Jim Acosta
Actually, no, it was not. It was very easy.
- [50:01]
Dr. Rob Davidson
It was Right. And, like, the ones. I don't want to make a little hiccup. No, no. But it should be right. This is testing mild cognitive impairment.
- [50:08]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [50:08]
Dr. Rob Davidson
At 26 or less. And if you got less than 12 years of education. We talked before. I know. You said college. Then you don't get a point. Less than 12 years of education. You get an extra point because we're saying, okay, a lot of education.
- [50:19]
Jim Acosta
What if I partied mostly through college? Does that count?
- [50:22]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I don't think you need the point.
- [50:23]
Jim Acosta
Give me a point there.
- [50:24]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I think you're good. All right, so. And this is the one here we got. Yeah. So technically, as we're rounding up, I mean, they don't do decimals, so, yeah, as it goes. So the only thing that was not, like, 100. 100% was the daisy.
- [50:41]
Jim Acosta
Right? Was the daisy.
- [50:42]
Dr. Rob Davidson
The five minute. Forget the Daisy. That's okay. You'll never forget it in your life. I had a dog named Daisy, so I'd never lose it. Face velvet, church, Daisy red. Again, no order in particular. And then you get an option category cue, like, hey, it's a flower. And then multiple choice cue. I'll give you, like, hey, Daisy table. You know, whatever. And then you'd get it, but you got it on the one. And so it's times two for that. Okay, so three times this. I'm gonna get this. So it's 14 out of 15. We divide it out, and we're still rounding up. We don't do decimal points. Your score is a 30. You're given.
- [51:15]
Jim Acosta
Oh, I did get a 30 out of 30. I still got. Unbelievable. Amazing.
- [51:20]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Congrats.
- [51:21]
Jim Acosta
All right. Thank you so much.
- [51:22]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Patience.
- [51:23]
Jim Acosta
You don't. Do you normally give. Congratulate somebody a point? Oh, you just don't let me.
- [51:27]
Dr. Rob Davidson
No, you give them.
- [51:28]
Jim Acosta
I just want to show. Right here. This is official. I. I aced it. I totally aced it.
- [51:33]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Totally.
- [51:34]
Jim Acosta
Can I say that? Totally aced this test. And it was fake news. When you said Daisy. That was fake news.
- [51:40]
Steve Schmidt
All right.
- [51:40]
Jim Acosta
No, I'm just kidding. This is it right here. And I must say, that was. And I. And I shouldn't joke too much because there are people who have to take this, and families go through all this stuff and whatnot. But I will say that it is totally nuts that he claims that this is some sort of measurement of his IQ because this is not an IQ test.
- [51:59]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Let's make it clear. It's not an IQ test. This is not an IQ test. It's a measurement of cognitive decline. Right. Nothing to do with intelligence. There are like Rhodes scholars, right, Geniuses who suffer from dementia.
- [52:09]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [52:09]
Dr. Rob Davidson
You know, I had a patient once, her husband came in and said, this woman in front of you who was a patient with dementia was a first chair violinist with the Boston Symphony. And like this clearly accomplished person, she had this horrible disease.
- [52:22]
Jim Acosta
Amazing.
- [52:22]
Dr. Rob Davidson
And was, you know, brilliant at a point in her life and then lost it. So. Yeah. This has nothing to do with intelligence. It's cognition. You're cognitively intact. You can let your family know. I'm good for now. Yeah. Both the same age and I don't
- [52:35]
Jim Acosta
feel this good every day, so maybe I should take it again, just to double check.
- [52:38]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I think you don't need to take it unless someone who is close to you thinks that you should.
- [52:42]
Jim Acosta
You don't think I should ace it three times or anything like that? No, but I think this is instructive and I'm glad that we did this. I do think that, you know, when he goes out there and brags that he can find which one is the squirrel. Yeah, I think that that's not good, it seems to me, I mean, do, when you listen to him, do you think there's something, what's going on here? Like, do you ever have that thought?
- [53:06]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Yeah, of course. I mean, and I, I work with other physicians and nurses and we talk about this. Right? You talk about what's going on in the world and like, I won't make a diagnosis. We don't. It's not ethical to try to diagnose somebody. And I don't know if the President has a condition, but something just seems not right. Again, to perseverate on this test and to tout its difficulty when anyone can just go, I mean, anyone can go find this. You Google C A and you're going to get 100 images, you know.
- [53:35]
Jim Acosta
Right. And you, you were asking me what city I'm in. Yeah. You're asking me what day of the week it is. You're asking me what a lion is. You know, it's. This is very basic stuff.
- [53:45]
Dr. Rob Davidson
It is, and it's telling you. Are you aware of your surroundings? Right. Do you have a basic grasp now, the clock one may be dated someday and there may be a time when, you know, Gen Z and millennials.
- [53:54]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, that's true.
- [53:55]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Like you, you have a watch. I have a digital one, you know,
- [53:57]
Jim Acosta
but I have trouble with that.
- [53:58]
Dr. Rob Davidson
But, you know, but yeah, I mean, it's just basic stuff. You should be able to know what a lion, a rhinoceros are camel is even if you don't see them every day. And so yeah, this shouldn't be hard. I'm glad that they're administering a cognitive test to the present. I don't know if the results are true. I don't know that we can never know what is true.
- [54:16]
Jim Acosta
But the fact that they keep doing it, you think that's a concern?
- [54:19]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I think it's just not typical. Right? It isn't typical. It isn't what you would just generally do for any individual when you didn't have a concern. And so the White House physicians, it's hard to say. I mean he takes a full dose aspirin when he has been told by many physicians and we have everyone's reported on it, that is not what is recommended. So I don't know if he's just asking for the test so he can go and brag about the results. It's hard to say for sure, but it isn't typical for sure.
- [54:46]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And it's strange, as we said, that he fixates on it so much since we have you here, I mean we should talk about a couple of healthcare issues because you're so good on the subject. He just had this event with RFK Jr. Where he's talking about Trump Rx and he's presenting it as this, you know, big cure for the high cost of medicine in this country. Is it?
- [55:08]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Yeah. Well, I mean this, a lot of this probably stemmed from Elizabeth Warren questioning RFK Jr. On, you know, in his Senate hearings about the cost of a drug Pantoprazole and how it was 12 bucks at Costco and it was, you know, hundreds of dollars. And that's where we got into all the percents and 6% and all that. And they teamed up with Mark Cuban, right, who has an online pharmacy that delivers discounted generic drugs. I mean, as far as I can tell, I've gone on the site like, yes, people can get their drugs cheaply but you know, TrumpRx basically gets agreements with manufacturers to get people to buy branded drugs. Right. Brand name drugs that cost astronomical amount of money. And now what they've done is said, okay, well we're going to link you to Mark Cuban's site. So I mean it's essentially just a site trafficking platform that can route people into this place. They could have gone all along. So again, it feels like. And we've talked about on Paging America, the President's pollster, Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio told them, you guys are getting killed on health care. You got to talk about. You got to do something about health care. They took a trillion dollars out of Medicaid, millions of people off of the ACA because they let the tax credits expire. And so what they've decided is we're going to make this website. We're going to tell people it's something that in fact isn't. We're going to tell them it's going to fix those costs. And it's not the fix. Right. Wholesale reform. I know in my state of Michigan, we're getting money out of politics. We're banning companies that have big contracts with the state from giving to politicians the money, the power. That's what's unfortunately driving the astronomical healthcare costs, including drug costs. And Trump Rx is not the fix.
- [56:45]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, no. And it looks that way. It looks more marketing, which is, than substance, which is very much a Trump thing. The other thing that we should talk about is, I mean, you mentioned RFK Jr. We're living in a world right now where people are freaked out about Ebola, they're freaked out about this hantavirus, and the guy in charge of HHS is RFK Jr who gets into plunge pools with Kid Rock. I mean, not exactly somebody who is a trusted expert on science or viruses or any of those things. How worried are you about the state of affairs when it comes to public health in this country right now?
- [57:22]
Steve Schmidt
Right.
- [57:22]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I mean, it'd be bad enough if it was just an unserious HHS secretary who did do plunges in their genes with Kid Rock. But it isn't that he's unserious. It's that he is dangerous. Right. This entire administration is dangerous from the fact that they don't have heads of the major agencies of Health and Human Services. They just don't have people because people leave, Right?
- [57:41]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, they don't.
- [57:42]
Dr. Rob Davidson
They don't want to be a part of this. And when it comes specifically like to hantavirus, to Ebola, I mean, us pulling out of the World Health Organization. Right. We were a leading voice, right? Yes. We provided resources to the WHO because we are a resource risk nation compared to so many of the countries that are part of it, particularly in Africa, where Ebola is rearing its head yet again. But we receive back so much more than we ever put in as far as intelligence, as far as, like, data, so we can stave off these diseases, keep them contained. We should always be on the leading edge of these outbreaks, whether it's on a cruise ship or it's in the Democratic Republic of Congo or wherever it is. We should be engaged. And the disengagement was with that apparatus is dangerous. It should frighten people. And for the amount that we saved.
- [58:30]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [58:31]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Compared to the billion dollars or so for a volume or a trillion dollars of tax cuts, like it's, it's, it's really nothing and it gets us a whole lot and it's missed.
- [58:39]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And I think one of the things that needs to come up in the conversation at some point is what are we doing with health care in this country? It's going to be a major debate on the Democratic side heading into the 2028 campaign. It's obviously going to drive voters I think in these 2026 midterms because people are pissed about the so called big beautiful bill and stripping all of that money from Medicaid. And we're still not seeing the, the actual effects of that policy just yet. We're starting to see it, but not, not the way it probably will unfold over the next several months. And I guess it raises the issue, what are we going to do about our health care system in this country? Because Trump, it looks like, is just going to drive it into the ditch and that is going to be a boon to the insurance industry because they're going to say, aha, see, this is why we should be running things. I think the conversation needs to be had. How do we get towards universal health care in this country? Right.
- [59:31]
Dr. Rob Davidson
And I mean our organization, the Committee to Protect Health Care, that is our North Star universal health care. And we've intentionally not picked a side as far as how we get there. As many countries as there are in the world with universal healthcare, there are that many to different systems.
- [59:44]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, right.
- [59:45]
Dr. Rob Davidson
There's single payer, there's insurance companies that are regulated, there's you know, systems that are like the VA in England and you know, in the UK where it is government run health care. And I don't know that any of those specific policies work in a country like ours. Right. With a system we have in place. And so I think it's important that we call out the bad guys. Right. We call out a Republicans who are cutting healthcare, we call out the profit takers, pharma insurance, big hospital conglomerates. But I think it's also then we project a forward vision of what do we, what is our goal. Right. And if the goal is what you said and what we believe is everyone can afford health care, I think that's where you start and then you figure out how you build it.
- [60:24]
Jim Acosta
And talk about Paging America. I know we've talked to you before about this, but you're trying to get this going. You've got it up and running. This is a place where folks, where they can not just watch your segments on what's happening, sort of news of the day, but also just get really good, reliable health information. Yeah, yeah.
- [60:40]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I mean, we're kind of doing a bit of reboot on YouTube and you can find us on substack as well. You know, certainly every week on Thursdays, Paging America podcast comes out with myself and our chief of staff at the committee, Project Health Care, Miles Baker. Kind of coming at it from the political side and we're exploring the politics of health care and how we build power for patients. But then, yeah, we want to also bring to individuals who are listening and watching reliable information, you know, kind of dismantling the disinformation that is out there when it comes to vaccines and abortion pills. We want to have people talking about women's health in a kind of forward looking way and. Yeah, so they can find us.
- [61:15]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [61:15]
Dr. Rob Davidson
YouTube, substack, Instagram, kind of any of the socials. Paging America.
- [61:21]
Jim Acosta
Very Good. All right, Dr. Rob Davidson, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Good job. And next time, could you give me if I'm missing an answer. Answer on this, you have to somehow give me a signal as to what that answer is. You're not going to do that. No. But I think this was very interesting. I think that, you know, did I. I did not think I would get a 30 out of 30. I'll be really honest with you, because knowing myself, I just would probably get something wrong. And I guess I kind of. I kind of sort of did, though. I will say that, you know, just going again, looking back at this, this is not something I would brag about.
- [61:55]
Steve Schmidt
Right.
- [61:56]
Jim Acosta
This is not something I would do. I would not brag about this. Yeah, this is. This is not something one does when they're of sound mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [62:04]
Dr. Rob Davidson
It seems to me I'm a Detroit Lions fan and Barry Sanders was my, one of my heroes. And they always said, act like you've been there before. When he got a touchdown, he handed it off to the ref and he went back to the bench. And it's like if you take a cognitive test, you get a good score and you just kind of go back to your day.
- [62:18]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [62:19]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I don't know that you talk to anybody.
- [62:20]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. Why brag about it? Exactly.
- [62:22]
Dr. Rob Davidson
I Don't get it.
- [62:23]
Jim Acosta
But I'm just glad I know which one is the camel.
- [62:26]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Absolutely.
- [62:26]
Jim Acosta
And which one is the lion.
- [62:27]
Dr. Rob Davidson
Yeah.
- [62:28]
Jim Acosta
And which one is the rhino. I feel great about all of that. Very good. Thank you, doctor. Appreciate it. Good to see you. All right. All right. There you go. My goodness, that was a lot of fun. And I have to say, Dr. Rob Davidson was terrific in presenting this test and he did tell me afterwards. I will, in full disclosure, because unlike Donald Trump, we are completely transparent here. Technically, I did not get a 30 out of 30 because I did not get Daisy correct the first time I was asked what those words are. And it's. What's interesting is, is that there is a. There's a second line that says category Q where he cues me. And then I remembered the damn word. So that I guess you could say gave me a five out of five there, but not really. It was like a four point something out of five. So it was not. I did not get a 100. As the emoji goes, it's like almost a 30 out of 30. But at the bottom of this, it says in parentheses, normal 26 out of 30. So I definitely was way above normal. Let's just say I'm normal. I am a normal person. I took the cognitive test. I passed the cognitive test. I wouldn't say I aced it. 100. I didn't get a 100 score like Donald Trump, but I, I did pretty well here, and I knew which one. So you can see the lion. Very cute little lion, cute little rhino, cute little giraffe. There's my little clock picture. It's, it's, it's good artistic work here, I have to say. Although now somebody was being. Now if somebody was like Benny Johnson or somebody was giving me this test, he probably would deduct for my penmanship or my artwork or whatever just to try to roast me. But I, I think I did. I did pretty well. And my little cube, it's true, I used to doodle all the time. My cube was pretty good. And I did this. So it, and I will say this was a very interesting exercise and experience, but it, it reinforces to me what I think I already knew going into it, which is this is something that the President of the United States should not be administered. The President of the United States should not be taking a cognitive test ever, because we should be electing people to the office of the President of the United States, where this is not an issue. And as Dr. Rob Davidson was talking about during our discussion, the Fact that he keeps taking, or he says he keeps taking it is strange, it is weird, and it merits more coverage than we're actually giving it. I mean, the President, United States, if he is actually taking multiple cognitive tests. Hello, everybody. That is a story. That is a major, major story. Because this, I can just tell you, having done this, this is not something that you. You should have to do unless you are at risk of being in cognitive decline. And I am not. You know, people can have their opinions about me, but I'm not at risk of cognitive decline. It's. This is not an IQ test. You could think I'm a dumbass, but that's not what this is. This is whether you know what day of the week it is. This is about whether you know what a lion is and so on. And so I really appreciate Dr. Rob Davidson for administering this test. And check him out at Paging America. That's it for this Memorial Day weekend edition of the Jim Acosta Show. Want to thank everybody for tuning in. I want to thank everybody for being a part of this independent media community that we've established here. If you can share, like, support this episode by becoming a paid subscriber. If you're watching on Substack, uh, and you become a paid subscriber, you are supporting this work. You know, we run it out of studio. We got Dr. Rob Davidson in town. You know, these things, you just don't throw this together, together for free. You know, these, you know, and so whenever you support this program and act generously in that fashion, it means the world to me. It means the world of the team. It makes sure we can keep going and add members of the team and, and so on. And so just want to thank everybody for that as. And if you're doing it on YouTube, that means the world to me, too. But had a lot of fun with that episode and, and really appreciate Dr. Rob Davidson. Also, want to give a shout out to my pal, uh, Steve Schmidt, and his, I think, very important words heading into this Memorial Day weekend. I, I don't say it often enough, but, you know, my gratitude to members of our armed forces, their families, you know, all of the people who are in harm's way this weekend and, and their family members. You know, please understand, it may not be said often enough to you and to your families for what you have done and what your families have, have given to this country, but thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts here at the Jim Acosta Show. It. It isn't said often enough, but this is what makes America America. People who give these sacrifices in service to their country. But in the meantime, still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a great weekend. I'll see you next time.
- [67:23]
Dr. Rob Davidson
It. Sa.