Disgusting MSNBC Republicans: Reagan Definitely Had Alzheimer’s While President

Newsbusters.org ^ | January 8, 2018 | Curtis Houck

[Kaslin]

Continuing the liberal media’s insistence that they can diagnose someone as mentally or physically ill, Monday’s Deadline: White House on MSNBC featured detestable liberal Republicans Nicolle Wallace and David Jolly asserting that Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer’s while president to the point that he may have been unfit for office. 

Reagan came up during a segment about the likelihood that there’s something wrong mentally or physically wrong with President Trump (which the show insinuated was a yes).

 

Disgusting MSNBC Republicans: Reagan Definitely Had Alzheimer’s While President

 

Wallace used the late Michael Deaver (and YouTube videos) as her main sources for claims Reagan having Alzheimer’s while in office, wondering to Jolly if Trump knew about Reagan while tweeting over the weekend: “I don't know if the President doesn't know, has never heard Michael Deavers — the late Michael Deaver post-White House really heartfelt, really honest, really frank articulations of what it was like to see Ronald Reagan age.”

“I wondered today, rereading Donald Trump's tweets about Reagan, if he knew that Ronald Reagan was suspected to have had the early signs of Alzheimer's during his second term as President,” she concluded. 

Jolly agreed without hesitation, declaring that Reagan was suffering from the disease “in his sixth year”:

[T]his is a very grave conversation. It has been over 30 years since this nation had a conversation about whether or not our president was fit to serve and that's a very grave conversation and the important thing in this is if we are having the conversation, that necessarily means there is concern among the body politic[.]

He also bemoaned the questioning of someone’s health despite having just done so:

[I]f you are talking about the President's mental fitness, you are not on message regarding his agenda nor the interest of the country and so what we are seeing among this President, whether it be true or not is based on his own irascible behavior, we're having a national conversation that not is just challenging for the President but it's challenging for the country.

Somewhere, liberal Republicans and resistance sycophants Kurt Bardella, Charlie Sykes, and Bret Stephens must be proud.

Bill O’Reilly made this claim in his much-maligned book Killing Reagan and it drew widespread condemnation. At the time, George Will penned an absolutely scathing takedown on the book, including the portions about Regan having Alzheimer’s while in office. 

Reagan biographer Craig Shirley trashed the book as “garbage” and “total B.S.” for peddling such views. Reagan library executive director John Heubusch said the book was “a disservice to history.”

The Heritage Foundation’s Lee Edwards addressed Reagan’s health in reviewing a Shirley book, writing in 2015 that Reagan “had no serious health problems before his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 1994.”

When Reagan’s son Ron alleged the same in 2011, his half-brother Michael denied the claim by arguing that Ron “was an embarrassment to his father when he was alive and today he became an embarrassment to his mother.”

Here’s the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Deadline: White House on January 8

MSNBC’s Deadline: White House
January 8, 2018
4:09 p.m. Eastern

NICOLLE WALLACE: And David Jolly, I don't know if the President doesn't know, has never heard Michael Deaver — the late Michael Deaver post-White House really heartfelt, really honest, really frank articulations of what it was like to see Ronald Reagan age and let's assert every president, every man — there's never been a woman — every man ages at warp speed in the presidency, but Ronald Reagan was — he was officially diagnosed and revealed to the country in 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. But if you go back and I’ve watched some of it on YouTube today and you watch Michael Deaver, you watch some of the other people who were around Ronald Reagan, I wondered today, rereading Donald Trump's tweets about Reagan, if he knew that Ronald Reagan was suspected to have had the early signs of Alzheimer's during his second term as President. 

DAVID JOLLY: Sure in his sixth year and you're right about how it ages a president. We saw it in Bush 43. We saw it in Obama. But, Nicolle, this is a very grave conversation. It has been over 30 years since this nation had a conversation about whether or not our president was fit to serve and that's a very grave conversation and the important thing in this is if we are having the conversation, that necessarily means there is concern among the body politic. You know, there is an axiom in politics, and you know this well. If you are explaining, you ain't campaigning. And my apologies to my fifth grade grammar teacher, but the reality is on that, if you are talking about the President's mental fitness, you are not on message regarding his agenda nor the interest of the country and so what we are seeing among this President, whether it be true or not is based on his own irascible behavior, we're having a national conversation that not is just challenging for the President but it's challenging for the country.

[Yaelle]

With my experience, if I had to guess, neither he nor his wife nor aides had any clue in 1988 that he would soon have Alzheimer’s. My parents, 5 years before each of their diagnoses, traveled the world, built a dream house, and engaged in hobbies and rich social lives. If either had a senior moment, it would not be anything a young person wouldn’t also sometimes have.

Again, my guess based on my experience, two years before his dx, he probably was noticing a problem keeping track of things. Maybe at some point his family was noticing it too. Maybe they even got a dx or possible dx earlier, and hoped that some treatment, some rest, whatever, would get thins back to normal. His letter to us was when they realized he was on the path of no return.

[jerod]

And when he did suffer from Alzheimer’s even if it was while he was the president, he was still 10 times more competent and mentally stable than Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale put together.

[Kickass Conservative]

My B-I-L used to visit with President Reagan about once a Month after he left Office at his Office in Century City.

President Reagan was perfectly fine. What a load of crap these Morons are spreading.

[HighSierra5]

Yeah, Trump might be crazy, but he ain’t stupid.

[DennisR]

Not exactly. He would have given his head a slight shrug to the right and said, “Well, there you go again.”

[Kaslin]

Except he did Not have Alzheimer's when he was president.

Here is what a reader wrote

Reader: Can we just set the record straight for once?

What did President Reagan's actual doctor, his practicing neurosurgeon, have to say about this nonsense?

Reagan's neurosurgeon, Dr. John Moseley, set the record straight in a 2004 interview - a interview of a first hand account; one that the national media had no interest in sharing with their broader audience.

Disclosure: I know John Moseley, and he personally confirmed all of this to me.

Billings Surgeon recalls treating late president

It was the spring of 1989 and Reagan had just left office. While on a trip a month earlier in Mexico, Reagan had fallen from a horse and been mildly injured. Although a previous CAT scan showed all was well, Reagan was having headaches. His new X-rays showed a tiny blood clot.

Moseley had the room full of people clear out and found himself alone with the former leader of the free world for about 45 minutes.

"I asked him, 'Is it OK to ask you certain questions?' He laughed and told me, 'Ask whatever you want, Doc.' " [..]

[Captain Peter Blood]

While Reagan may have been diagnosed in 1994 here is clip of Reagan at his 83rd birthday in D.C. in Feb. 1994. He gives a speech and it’s pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yirnoL9NpSc

[ntnychik]

I’ll never forget President Reagan’s speech at the 1992 GOP convention, nearly four years after leaving office and two years before his 1994 diagnosis. He died a decade after that.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WxL3OU1dwmI

[napscoordinator]

Hmmmmmm. I wouldn’t bet on it. Its not like it just pops up like cancer.

[Ancesthntr]

So, even using the warped standards of these idiots, “senile” Republican Reagan brought down the Soviet Empire without starting World War III and created an economic boom the likes of which this country hasn’t seen since (though I’d like to believe that we are in for many years of a similar boom under Trump), while mentally fit (but ideologically retarded and narcissistic) Clinton and Obama nearly brought this country to complete ruin on both the domestic and foreign policy fronts. Ergo, it is better to have a “senile” Republican president over pretty much any Democrat.

FYI, I do believe that Reagan was starting to slow down quite a bit in the last year or two of his second term. I don’t know if that qualifies as Alzheimer’s, but the first term Reagan would never have allowed Iran-Contra to damage him or his administration the way that second-term Reagan did.

Oh, and Donald Trump has not the slightest evidence of Alzheimer’s, Dementia or mental imbalance. Yes, he has a large ego. But if you turned a million-dollar loan into a multibillion-dollar fortune in about 30 years, while everyone in the world was saying you couldn’t do it, then I think you’d be entitled to have a bit of an ego as well. Besides, I’d like anyone to name a single serious contender for the presidency, let alone and actual occupant of the office, who did not have an outsized ego.

[hinckley buzzard]

The first problem is, none of these jerkoffs know squat about early dementia. Second, if they did, they would know that long term cognition and memories are robust and would be sufficient to carry one through for some time. It is entirely possible that Reagan had initial stage Alzheimers toward the end of his second term. The historical fact is that even so he was ten times the president that Clinton or Bush 43 or Obama were in their prime.

[Bellflower]

A Reagan, even with some Alzheimer's, is far, far better than a democrat without it. An avowed democrat is very mentally unsound to begin with. A democrat is far removed from reality. Anyone who supports, promotes and empowers the ripping apart and murdering children while in their mother's womb, in a sane and decent society, would be in prison.

[TigersEye]

Yep ever been around it that is correct

Thank you all!

My mother's first symptoms appeared in '06 and were diagnosed as depression. One year later she was diagnosed as having dementia, most probably Alzheimer's. (and that was only possible with a cognition test) Six years after her first symptoms in '06 would have been 2012 and five minutes of talking with her would have been all any layman would have needed to know that she was extremely impaired.

I was with her every day from '05, when there was nothing odd at all in her behavior, until she passed in 2016 ten years after it was first noticeable. Her progression matches textbook descriptions like a glove.

If Reagan had had any symptoms in '88 he would have been diagnosed by '90 because he would have been having real problems and Nancy R. would not have ignored them. That would be when he left office so to say he was in any way impaired prior to leaving office is beyond all credulity. No way would he have lived until 2004.

[alexander_busek]

"I asked him, 'Is it OK to ask you certain questions?' He laughed and told me, 'Ask whatever you want, Doc.' " [..]

I read the article - unfortunately, we never do get to find out what the questions were, or how the President answered.

Click bait!

Regards,

[TigersEye]

Thank you for that link. I have watched about ten minutes of it so far and I say there is no way that he has even the first impairments of Alzheimer’s there. Slight as it is in the beginning it would show and I see nothing of it there.

[easternsky]

Yes I agree also from Much experience, hard road to Hoe

[Impy]

It has been over 30 years since this nation had a conversation about whether or not our president was fit to serve

Obama was President 1 year ago, not 30.

[eddie willers]

Up in heaven, President Reagan is chuckling, “there you go again.”

Thread winner.

[TigersEye]

Yes, it is, FRiend, extremely hard. And when you’ve lived with it and seen it first hand you know it’s not the slowing down of aging.

It can be misdiagnosed in the beginning as something else but there is still something there that is seen as a problem. In that ‘92 convention speech by Reagan there is no problem.

[basalt]

her voice could scatter mosquitos..my god..now i know why OJ could do such a thing..