Do you calculate first? After his life in public office, the former president faces dangerous cancer diagnosis and difficult questions.
Joe Biden has been diagnosed with “aggressive” prostate cancer
Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with a “aggressive” form of prostate cancer.
Joe Biden’s exit from American politics was never easy.
After a life in public office that ended with an unprecedented turnaround of whether to seek a second term or not, the former president has seen his mental vision increasingly scrutiny and systematically distillation of steam by his successors.
The announcement that Biden, now 82, has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to bone, has prompted a surge in sympathy and compassion. But it also highlights a growing number of questions, and among some top Democrats, he is angry at his first decision to run for reelection despite signs of physical frailty and the reality of senior age.
“So far, it’s really good,” Biden told USA Today in January. “But who knows what I will be when I’m 86?”
In an interview with Oval Office, he said in 2020 he believed he could beat Donald Trump in 2024. His vice president, Kamala Harris, insisted on the Democratic nomination, but lost the general election.
But among many independent political analysts, Biden’s defeat seemed almost guaranteed given voters’ vigilance about inflation and immigration, as well as concerns about his vitality. Some speculate that the previous decision not to run again and the full-scale primary campaign that followed will allow other Democratic candidates to win in November.
There is also this discussion now. Was there a cover-up to prevent Americans from understanding the president’s health?
“Is this yet another cover-up?”
Monitoring the health of the president has long been a difficult company, and in 1919 he returned to the disability stroke that Woodrow Wilson suffered. His wife became his gatekeeper. When Ronald Reagan announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1994, some observers wondered whether he had shown early signs of disability before leaving the White House in 1989.
Even Trump, 78, faces questions about his mental vision, boasting about the expansion of cognitive tests used to screen for dementia during his April health check.
“Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” he told The Truth Social Sunday. “We will spread the warmest and best wishes to Jill and his family. We hope Joe has a quick and successful recovery.”
However, his son, Donald Trump Jr., first reposted a message saying, “Politics aside, I hope he has a quick recovery.”
“What I want to know is if Dr. Jill Biden missed Stage 5 metastatic cancer or was it another cover-up?” he wrote. He reposted a message claiming that he was likely diagnosed with cancer while Biden was president without providing evidence. (There are four stages of cancer.)
Young Trump pinned his message to the top of the social media site X feed, giving his 15 million followers a special reputation.
The cover-up allegations were facilitated by CNN’s Jaktapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson by an explosive book on May 20th. Title “The Original Sin,” the innermost circle of the White House made up for Biden – detailing the time he worked, the length of the speech he gave, and even limiting access to cabinet members.
Last week’s release of an audio recording of Biden’s interview with special advisor Robert Huar in 2023 sparked more controversy. In it, Biden has stopped and struggles to remember his name and date.
Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said Friday that the panel will resume an investigation into allegations of concealment. “Obviously from that interview, Joe Biden couldn’t make a decision because it was many months before the intense use of the autopen,” Comer told Fox News’ “Hannity.” “He was inconsistent.”
Biden’s medical diagnosis is unlikely to block the investigation of the GOP.
“Look, I say whether it’s a suitable time to have this conversation or the future, we need to be really honest about whether the former president can do his job,” Vice President JD Vance told reporters on Air Force 2.
Biden was hoping to write his memoirs and plan the presidential library, so instead he will face an avalanche of Congressional inquiries and questions.
Reluctant democratic calculations
Meanwhile, Democratic Congress leaders have dodged debates about whether they recognized Biden’s worrying decline in vision, and if so, what they did and should have done about it.
“We’re looking forward to it,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said last week when CNN’s Casey Hunt forced him to do what he had observed in a private meeting with Biden. When she asks Democrats if Biden’s decision cost the White House, he will just repeat, “We’re looking forward to it.”
“Is that the end?” she asked. “That’s all,” he said.
However, some Democrats believe the party has no choice but to explore a complicated exit from Biden’s politics.
Sen. Chris Murphy of D-Connecticut said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that “it was a mistake,” as long as he was doing, it was a mistake to stay in the race. “It was a mistake to set up a process where Democrats would not listen to voters early and would have won us in a position where we might be more competitive.”
By the 2028 presidential contest, economic and other issues are likely dominant, but the rest of Biden’s departure could also be a factor.
His most enthusiastic defenders and members of his administration were able to find themselves forced to deal with what they knew and what they did, including former Transport Secretary Pete Buttigigue.
Even the former president – Illinois Governor, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, and New York State Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – could be boosted as the fresh faces the party needs.
At this point, the Democrats were able to take advantage of the boost.
According to this month’s Associated Press poll, only 17% of Americans are optimistic about the Democratic future. This is a sharp drop from 31%, which I felt like that about a year ago. (Currently, 25% are optimistic about the future of the GOP.) Even among Democrats, only about a third expressed optimism towards their party.
Some say that rebuilding future reliability may require the past to be considered first.
