Trump orders inquiry into 'conspiracy' to hide Biden's cognitive health decline

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered an investigation into what Republicans claim was a "conspiracy" to cover up Joe Biden’s declining cognitive health during his time in the White House.

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The move, which was slammed by Biden, is the latest in a long-running campaign by Trump — with the backing of Republican Party politicians and their cheerleaders in the conservative media — to discredit his predecessor.

But it also comes as a growing chorus of Democrats begin to acknowledge the former president appeared to have been slipping in recent years.

Those concerns were thrown into stark relief by a disastrous debate performance against Trump during last year’s presidential campaign, in which the then-81-year-old stumbled over his words and repeatedly lost his train of thought.

"In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former president Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline," a presidential memorandum issued on Wednesday reads. "This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. "The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”

'Ridiculous and false'

Biden vehemently denied the allegations.