Fox News personalities are weaponizing the news that President Joe Biden recently began using a CPAP machine to help with the widespread disorder of sleep apnea to fearmonger over his physical and mental health. Their baseless claims run the gamut, from arguments that the sleep apnea diagnosis is a charade to cover up Biden’s purported dementia to assertions that sleep apnea is actually the cause of that purported dementia.

When Biden left the White House on Wednesday morning, reporters noticed that he had visible indentations on his face. White House aides subsequently disclosed that the markings were caused by the mask of a continuous positive airway pressure machine, or CPAP, which he had begun using in recent weeks to treat sleep apnea. Biden’s medical records mention sleep apnea as early as 2008, though he had not previously mentioned his use of a CPAP machine.

Sleep apnea is a condition affecting millions of Americans in which a sleeping person’s breathing starts and stops frequently, preventing restful sleep. While the condition can result in “serious complications” like memory loss and drowsiness if untreated, sleep apnea is “often very manageable, especially with close adherence to prescribed treatments” like the use of a CPAP machine to push pressurized air down the windpipe while sleeping, according to the Cleveland Clinic. 

But Fox’s right-wing propagandists have opportunistically seized on the news that Biden is treating a relatively common disorder to further their political attacks on his physical and mental health.

Laura Ingraham hosted contributor Raymond Arroyo, who used a string of video snippets to allege that sleep apnea is behind a variety of supposed Biden gaffes. 

“I actually have a different theory,” Ingraham responded. “The whole thing could be a scam, and it's a way to say, ‘No, he's not mentally impaired. He just needs to get a good night's sleep.’”

Sean Hannity claimed during his opening monologue that the sleep apnea is an indication of the president’s “mental and physical decline,” and later brought on Fox medical correspondent Dr. Nicole Saphier to discuss the condition. Both acknowledged that sleep apnea is a common condition, with Saphier stating that “about 20% of all U.S. adults actually have some form of it, many requiring CPAP machines.” 

But Saphier went on to question whether Biden may be “having microvascular disease of his brain or ministrokes that is potentially exacerbating his sleep apnea,” which she said can “cause other symptoms like microvascular dementia, leading to cognitive decline. Maybe that explains some of the gaffes he's been having.”

Fox’s Jeanine Pirro, Lawrence Jones, and Jesse Watters also suggested Biden’s use of a CPAP machine points to his purported mental impairment.

Fox and other right-wing outlets have spent years using out-of-context video clips and Biden misstatements to generate the baseless narrative that Biden’s mental faculties have deteriorated. Evidence to the contrary keeps piling up, but they’re too deeply committed to the talking point to change course.