Biden has suffered ‘cognitive decline’ in past six months: Report

President Joe Biden of the United States has suffered a "cognitive decline" in the past six months, according to a prominent investigative reporter.

Carl Bernstein told CNN on Monday that Biden had experienced "marked incidents of cognitive decline and physical infirmity."

During the first round of debates between the presumptive nominees last week, Biden seemed to lose his chain of thought at several points, raising serious concerns among his fellow Democrats, friends and family members about the 81-year-old's health and mental aptitude.

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Bernstein said, "These are people very close to President Biden, who love him, have supported him and among them are some people who have raised a lot of money for him and they are adamant that what we saw the other night is not a one off.

"That there have been 15, 20, occasions in the last year and a half when the president has appeared somewhat as he did in that horror show that we witnessed."

Bernstein was referring to Biden's performance in the first presidential debate with Republican contender Donald Trump ahead of the upcoming presidential election scheduled for November.

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"What's so significant is the people that this is coming from and also how many people around the president are aware of such incidents including some reporters incidentally who have witnessed some of them," Bernstein said.

"These people who have supported him, loved him, campaigned for him, see him often. [They] say that in the last six months particularly there have been marked incidents of cognitive decline and physical infirmity."

The award-winning journalist said members of Biden’s inner-circle of confidantes had raised some serious questions regarding Biden's health and cognitive state with Ron Klain, his former White House chief of staff and longstanding political confidant.

"The debate prep was supervised by Ron Klain who has been with President Biden for many years and people I've talked to have all been to Ron Klain in the last year to say we have a problem. We have a problem such as we saw the other night. There have been numerous incidences where the president has lost his train of thought, can't pick it up again," Bernstein said.

Bernstein alongside Bob Woodward, in the early 1970s, shot to prominence when he broke the Watergate story for The Washington Post, leading to the resignation of then President Richard Nixon and setting the standard for modern investigative reporting, for which they and The Post were awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He has since gone on to write a number of books on politics and journalism.

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A raspy-voiced Joe Biden, who struggled to deliver his lines coherently, stirred panic among Democrats and rekindled talk of his potential replacement.

Meanwhile, at his first presidential rally following the debate, Biden gave no indication he would step down, insisting he is capable of beating Trump.

“I can do this job, because, quite frankly, the stakes are too high,” Biden said energetically in Raleigh, North Carolina on Friday. “Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation.”

However, Biden acknowledged that he doesn't debate "as well as I used to.”

“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” he said. “I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to.”

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