President Joe Biden “continues to be match for obligation,” his physician wrote Wednesday after conducting an annual bodily that was carefully watched because the 81-year-old seeks reelection.
“President Biden is a wholesome, energetic, sturdy, 81-year-old male who stays match to efficiently execute the duties of the presidency,” Dr. Kevin O’Connor wrote in a six-page memo on the president’s well being, following a bodily that took Biden to Walter Reed Nationwide Army Medical Middle for greater than 2 1/2 hours.
The memo added that Biden, “feels effectively and this yr’s bodily identifies no new considerations.”
The oldest president in U.S. historical past, Biden can be 86 by the tip of a second time period, ought to he win one. After his final examination, carried out in February 2023, docs declared Biden “wholesome, vigorous” and “match” to deal with his White Home duties. However voters are approaching this yr’s election with misgivings about Biden’s age, having scrutinized his gaffes, his coughing, his sluggish strolling and even a tumble off his bicycle.
After he returned to the White Home, Biden attended an occasion on combating crime and advised that when it got here to his well being, “there’s nothing completely different than final yr.”
He additionally joked about his age, gesturing towards the assembled press corps and telling police leaders on the gathering, “They assume I look too younger.”
Former President Donald Trump, 77, is the favourite to lock up the Republican nomination later this month, which might deliver him nearer to a November rematch towards Biden. Trump was 70 when he took workplace in 2017, which made him the oldest American president to be inaugurated, till Biden broke his report by being inaugurated at 78 in 2021.
A latest particular counsel’s report on the investigation into Biden’s dealing with of labeled paperwork repeatedly derided Biden’s reminiscence, calling it “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “defective,” “poor” and having “important limitations.” It additionally famous that Biden couldn’t recall defining milestones in his personal life akin to when his son Beau died or when he served as vice chairman.
Nonetheless, addressing reporters the night of the report’s launch, Biden stated “my reminiscence is ok” and grew visibly offended as he denied forgetting when his son died of mind most cancers in 2015 on the age of 46.
White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated Wednesday that O’Connor was one among a staff of 20 completely different medical specialists who helped full the bodily and advised her he “was pleased with how every little thing went.”
Requested why he wasn’t present process a cognitive check as a part of the bodily, Jean-Pierre stated that O’Connor and Biden’s neurologist “don’t imagine he wants one.”
“He passes a cognitive check daily, daily as he strikes from one subject to a different subject, understanding the granular stage of those subjects,” Jean-Pierre stated, noting that Biden tackled such numerous points as Wednesday’s crime prevention occasion earlier than his deliberate journey to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday and subsequent week’s State of the Union deal with.
“It is a very rigorous job,” she added, “and the president has been in a position to do that job daily for the previous three years.”
Biden’s final bodily confirmed that the president had a lesion faraway from his chest over the earlier yr, however the outcomes then in any other case largely matched the findings after Biden’s earlier examination in November 2021. That report stated his occasional coughing was as a consequence of acid reflux disorder, whereas his stiffened gait was the results of spinal arthritis, a beforehand damaged foot and neuropathy in his ft.
The White Home additionally introduced final summer time that Biden had begun utilizing a steady optimistic airway stress, or CPAP, machine at night time to assist with sleep apnea — which O’Connor famous in Wednesday’s report.
The president had a colonoscopy in 2021, during which a 3-millimeter “benign-appearing polyp” was recognized and eliminated.
Many People, together with Democrats, have expressed reservations about Biden in search of a second time period throughout this fall’s election. Solely 37% of Democrats say Biden ought to pursue reelection, down from 52% earlier than the 2022 midterm elections, in keeping with a ballot from The Related Press-NORC Middle for Public Affairs Analysis.
Biden counters that his age brings knowledge, and he has begun to criticize Trump for the previous president’s latest public gaffes. Biden joked that his age was labeled info and advised throughout a taping in New York on Monday of “Late Evening With Seth Meyers â³ that Trump mistakenly referred to as his spouse Melania, “Mercedes” throughout a weekend speech on the Conservative Political Motion Convention — although the Trump marketing campaign says he was appropriately referring to political commentator Mercedes Schlapp.
Trump has certainly had his personal share of verbal miscues, mixing up the town and state the place he was campaigning, calling Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the chief of Turkey and repeatedly mispronouncing the militant group Hamas as “hummus.” Extra lately, he confused his Republican main rival Nikki Haley with former Democratic Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Whereas he was president, Trump’s annual bodily in 2019 revealed that he had gained weight and was as much as 243 kilos. Along with his 6-foot, 3-inch body, that meant Trump’s Physique Mass Index was 30.4. An index score of 30 is the extent at which docs contemplate somebody overweight underneath this generally used method.
