Levin vets Democrat psychiatrist who vets candidates

FPI / August 29, 2019

Amid a torrent of gaffes on the 2020 Democratic campaign trail, Joe Biden has been dubbed by President Donald Trump as "Crazy Joe."

For his part, Biden assures voters, "I want to be clear, I'm not going nuts."

The Trump resistance and even some in the psychiatric world have long attempted to make an issue of the president’s mental state.

That includes Bandy X. Lee, a Yale University faculty member and practicing psychiatrist who has made the rounds in anti-Trump media circles and also happens to be the author of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President”.

Lee, stepping out of her corporate media comfort zone, told conservative radio host Mark Levin on Aug. 27 she believes that while Biden may not be the sharpest candidate, he still outshines Trump.

When asked about Biden’s mental acuity, Lee told Levin: “It seems like it’s not so perfect. But compared to Donald Trump he is quite better off, and I believe he has the insight and integrity to pass off tasks if he were to become incapacitated. I’m not sure I can say the same about Donald Trump.”

During the Aug. 27 interview, Lee ran into a problem rarely encountered from MSNBC or CNN hosts, being challenged by the interviewer.

The Ivy Leaguer struggled when confronted by Levin, who charged that Lee’s warnings about Trump were politically motivated. Lee said she voted for Hillary Clinton and has never voted for a Republican.

Lee denied she had ever diagnosed Trump and said her views were based on distant observations.

In her book, Lee claims Trump’s presidency is “a public health emergency.” She has also met with Democratic members of Congress, warning of the president’s mental state.

Levin asked Lee if she has ever met the president or spoken to him, to which she responded, “No.”

Levin challenged the psychiatrist’s ability to offer an evaluation of the president without meeting or speaking to him. “You did know, obviously, scientific diagnosis, that’s not possible from a distance,” Levin said. “You say a ‘danger,’ because if you didn’t call it a ‘danger,’ you would have to have done some kind of diagnosis. And, of course, you didn’t do any kind of diagnosis.”

Lee claimed that under certain conditions psychiatrists can make a more accurate diagnosis of patients without seeing or speaking to them.

“It’s been scientifically proven that for certain conditions, a diagnosis is more accurate from a distance, without a personal interview,” Lee said.

When Levin referred to her work as making a “distant diagnosis” of the president, Lee said that she has never made a diagnosis.

“I have never diagnosed,” Lee said. “I’m not interested in diagnosing, I’m not interested in the personal mental health of Donald Trump. I am only interested in the public health effects.”

Levin countered: “Wait a minute, your book is full of allegations about the personal mental health of Donald Trump. This is double-speak. You don’t have a single scientific diagnosis from which you can analyze the mental health of the president of the United States.”

Levin added: “No offense, you sound like a palm reader.”

Free Press International