Former President Joe Biden shared unfortunate news with the public over the weekend: He was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to the bone.
The news about his Stage 4 diagnosis first fueled sympathy. But questions quickly arose about the timing of this unfortunate announcement, and whether he had word of the diagnosis while he was still in the White House.
Although these questions remain unanswered, and the Biden family stays mum, the latest book on the former president and a tape featuring him offers insight into his declining health while he was in office and about his decision to run for reelection.
The full tape of Biden’s conversation with special counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating the confidential documents found at his residence, was released Monday. It also serves as evidence of his declining mental acuity amid the already ballooning speculation into the former president.
Trump ‘surprised’ Biden didn’t inform the public ‘a long time ago’
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist who served as an adviser in the Biden White House, spoke about Biden’s cancer diagnosis on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday.
“He’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading,” Emanuel speculated.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends men who are 55 to 69 years old to get regular screenings, but does not recommend it for men who are 70 or older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Biden is 82.
Emanuel said it’s “a little strange” if Biden hadn’t been tested for prostate cancer when he was president.
Trump, who offered his sympathies at first, also suggested Biden hid the diagnosis from the public.
“I’m surprised that the public wasn’t notified a long time ago because to get to Stage 9, that’s a long time,” Trump said Monday. He conflated the Gleason score, an assessment of the pattern and nature of the cancer cells, with the stage of cancer, the indicator of how advanced the disease is.
Wall Street Journal puts CNN’s Jake Tapper on blast
The authors of “Original Sin,” Axios’ Alex Thompson and CNN’s Jake Tapper, say that the nearly 200 sources they spoke to laid out the information “after the election of 2024, when officials and aides felt considerably freer to talk.”
The book reveals troubling instances from the Biden presidency, like when the president failed to recognize George Clooney, his friend of more than 15 years. But its author, Tapper, is also under fire.
The Wall Street Journal took aim at the CNN host. The paper’s editorial board said that even though it published a report in June 2024 about Biden displaying “signs of slipping,” Tapper read out the White House’s dismissal and brought a Democrat to back it up.
“A more curious journalist would have explored if it were true, and maybe even done some of his own reporting. Only now does he tacitly admit the Journal was right,” the board added.
DOJ releases full Robert Hur report
The Justice Department’s release of the full and unedited conversation between Biden and special counsel Robert Hur from October 2023 appears to provide more evidence that his mental health was diminishing during his time in office.
These tapes offer the public deeper insight into Biden’s memory while he still served.
He speaks in a soft tone and pauses and had trouble ecalling specifics. His aides would step in and help when Biden couldn’t find the right word.
Axios, which broke the news about the tapes, noted that Biden failed to remember “when his son died, when he left office as vice president, what year Donald Trump was elected. Or why he had classified documents he shouldn’t have had.”
Hur did not file charges against Biden over the classified documents found at the former president’s home, saying he didn’t have enough to build a case. A jury would likely find him to be “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Hur noted.
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