President Donald Trump's mental "fitness" for office is under question, MSNBC host and former congressman Joe Scarborough wrote in a column for The Washington Post on Friday.
"Capitol Hill politicians and media outlets are quietly questioning whether Trump is fit for the highest office in the land," the "Morning Joe" host wrote. "That the commander in chief slurred his way through the end of a speech on Jerusalem Wednesday was just the latest in a string of unsettling incidents."
After Trump slurred his words when ending his speech on Jerusalem this week, White House spokesman Raj Shah told the Los Angeles Times that the president's "throat was dry," adding, "there's nothing to it."
In his op-ed, Scarborough notes that this event wasn't the first to prompt questions over Trump's health and wellness, and that multiple members of Trump's Cabinet have reportedly questioned or expressed a low opinion of Trump's fitness.
"The secretary of state reportedly called the president a 'moron.' The national security adviser allegedly said Trump has the mind of a 'kindergartner,'" he notes, adding that Vanity Fair cited half a dozen anonymous White House staffers who said "Trump is 'unraveling' mentally."
One of the president's regular early-morning reads, the New York Daily News, editorialized last week that "the President of the United States is profoundly unstable. He is mad. He is, by any honest layman's definition, mentally unwell and viciously lashing out.'"
Scarborough also notes that in Trump's previous line of work, "any Fortune 500 company would have fired a chief executive exhibiting similarly erratic behavior long ago. Unfortunately, the Washington leaders most strategically positioned to limit the damage seem to be frozen by fear."
He concludes that "Trump has dragged America's values and reputation to their lowest point in years. If Republicans don't find their bearings soon, it may be America's safety and security that are next to go."