Dr. Keith Ablow, a former Fox News contributor and psychiatrist, expressed little surprise at Joe Biden’s momentary pause during his challenging debate with President Trump last year. Ablow had previously raised eyebrows over a decade ago by suggesting that Biden, then a vice-presidential candidate, displayed early signs of dementia.

In a conversation with Miranda Devine on the “Pod Force One” podcast, Ablow shared that his intuition signaled something unusual about Biden as early as 2012. This was during Biden’s vice-presidential debate against Republican candidate Paul Ryan, which was notably punctuated by Biden’s frequent laughter and interruptions.

Dr. Ablow explained, “As a psychiatrist, you develop a skill for listening not just to others but also to your internal reactions. You start to question, ‘Why do I feel uneasy about this?’ When watching Biden, I felt his performance was disjointed and overly abrupt. It wasn’t just due to his tendency to interrupt, but because those interruptions seemed excessively frequent and awkward, with his laughter striking me as inappropriate for the setting.”

Reflecting further, Ablow considered possible reasons for his discomfort, recalling how he appeared on Fox News to discuss his observations. He clarified, “I wasn’t diagnosing Biden, as I hadn’t evaluated him personally. However, I suggested that such behavior could sometimes be indicative of dementia, based on what I observed.”

“And so, I thought, well, what could be an explanation for that? And I went on Fox News and said, ‘Well, one explanation – I haven’t interviewed this man, I’m not diagnosing him – but some folks who have that kind of behavior … have an element of dementia,’” he added. 

The remark, made by Ablow on “Fox & Friends,” drew scorn at the time from left-wing media outlets and the likes of “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart. 

“I may have been the first one in the country to say, ‘Maybe [Biden] has an element of memory loss here.’”

“That was my instinct,” he added. 

Ablow explained that he first broached the subject of Biden showing signs of mental deterioration during a post-debate meeting with Roger Ailes, the late chairman of Fox News, who encouraged him to think about saying it on the air. 

“I went to Roger Ailes’ office. It happened to be after that debate. We just happened to be meeting, and he said, ‘What did you think?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m a little worried that he could be suffering an impairment.’ And he said, ‘Well, maybe you’d want to say that, or think about it,’” the psychiatrist recounted. 

Ablow acknowledged that Biden, now 82, is known to use “laughter as a weapon,” but said at the time of his debate with Ryan, his chuckling seemed “misguided.” 

The doctor then suggested that Biden’s halting debate performance against Trump 12 years later was “perhaps a continuing degree of the same kind of cognitive issues.” 

“I wouldn’t know exactly, but it wasn’t surprising to me, because I saw it way back.”