Fox News’ Medical A-Team delved into psychoanalysis of the vice presidential debate on Sunday, speculating that Vice President Joe Biden was either demented or drunk during his performance. Fox regular Dr. Keith Ablow declared, “from a physicianly perspective,” that Biden’s energetic demeanor suggested dementia. When another member of the A-Team pointed out that Biden actually had strong command of the statistics and facts, Ablow suggested instead that “you’d want his alcohol level”:
I did not evaluate Joe Biden, but if someone said to me, we want you to do what’s really required to know what happened there, you have to put dementia on the differential diagnosis. You have to say, bizarre laughter, interrupting. If this were your dad or your grandfather, wouldn’t you say if you brought him to me, Keith, you’ve got to tell me, is he suffering with dementia? Because he can’t seem to listen, he’s laughing inappropriately.[…]I’m not diagnosing him. I haven’t evaluated him, but psychological testing is anybody’s guess what it would show. Not knowing every fact isn’t required to diagnose dementia and I’m not saying he has it. I’m saying you put it on the differential. Impulsivity, that’s part of it, and command of the facts…I’m speaking as a psychiatrist today, you didn’t call me in as a political strategist. So, you’d want his alcohol level. Why? Because he was that bizarre.
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As the Fox News A-Team is well aware, Biden is a strict teetotaler whose family has struggled with alcoholism. Ablow’s quack psychiatry has also led him to claim Newt Gingrich’s three marriages would make him a better president. Even Fox News’ Megyn Kelly attacked the doctor over his claim that a transgender Dancing With The Stars contestant would make children uncomfortable with their genders.
As fringe as he is, Ablow is hardly the only conservative offering outlandish theories to negate Biden’s strong debate performance. Mike Huckabee, also on Fox News, claimed Biden acted like “an obnoxious drunk,” while Sean Hannity suggested Biden had sampled bourbon before going onstage.