Republicans Express Alarm After Biden’s ‘Where’s Jackie’ Comment

President Joe Biden speaks during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington on Sept. 28, 2022. Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images

Republicans are calling for President Joe Biden to take a cognitive test after he called for the name of a House lawmaker who died last month during an event this week.

During a White House event, Biden asked, “Where’s Jackie,” referring to Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.). Walorski and several other people died in a car crash in August, drawing condolences from Biden, who had issued a statement about her death.

“No amount of spin from the White House can justify President Joe Biden forgetting the tragic passing of Jackie Walorski — the latest gaffe that calls so much into question,” Indiana Republican Party Chairman Kyle Hupfer said. “The American people deserve a straight answer, not a political talking point, as to how the President of the United States could forget that a congresswoman he was purportedly trying to honor had passed away just last month.”

Biden made the comment during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on Sept. 28.

“I want to thank all of you here, including bipartisan elected officials like … Senator Braun, Senator Booker, Representative … Jackie, Jackie are you here?” Biden stated. “I think she was—she wasn’t—going to be here to help make this a reality.”

‘Top of Mind’

When asked about what Biden meant, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed the president was trying to note that Walorski was one of four lawmakers who sponsored legislation trying to tackle hunger.

“The president was naming the congressional champions on this issue and was acknowledging her incredible work,” Jean-Pierre said. “He had already planned to welcome the congresswoman’s family to the White House on Friday. There will be a bill signing in her honor this coming Friday. So, of course, she was on his mind. She was top of mind for the president.”

(L-R) U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), and Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) listen during a meeting between President Donald Trump and congressional members in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington on Feb. 13, 2018. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), a former White House doctor who has been calling for Biden to take a cognitive test, again demanded the president to take one.

“It doesn’t take a neurologist to realize he’s in serious cognitive decline,” he told Fox News this week. “The American people know what’s going on here, and they don’t think the commander in chief is capable of doing his job. It’s past time for White House staff and the liberal media to stop shielding him from questions about his mental acuity and demand he answer my call for a cognitive test.”

Walorski died in a car accident that killed two of her staffers and a woman who was driving in another vehicle on Aug. 3. The driver of Walorski’s vehicle was found to be at fault, according to the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office in Indiana.

On the day of her death, Biden issued a statement saying both he and his wife, Jill, were “shocked and saddened.”

“Born in her beloved South Bend as the daughter of a meat-cutter and firefighter, she spent a lifetime serving the community that she grew up in—as a journalist, a nonprofit director, a state legislator, and eventually as a Member of Congress for the past nine and half years,” he said.

The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for comment.