President Joe Biden will undergo a long-awaited physical exam amid concerns about the 81-year-old’s health and fitness for a second term.
The Biden administration has fielded constant questions over the President would get his annual physical ahead of the election in November.
Biden, the oldest Commander-in-Chief in US history, made the unsheculed trip on Wednesday morning be assessed ahead of his likely rematch with Republican rival Donald Trump.
“I’m going to Walter Reed to get my physical,” Biden told journalists crossed the South Lawn to board Marine One. The results of the test will be released later on Wednesday.
Polls showing a majority of Americans think he is too old to run again for president and doesn’t have the mental acuity for a second term, which would finish when he is 86 years old.
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In his exam in February last year, White House physician Kevin O’Connor said the President’s gait “remains stiff”, but cleared him saying he was “healthy” and “vigorous.”
Biden does 45 minutes-worth of balancing exercises with a physical therapist daily to address his gait.
The Democrat also had a detailed “neurologic exam” that found nothing “consistent with any cerebellar or central neurological disorder.”
“He did not demonstrate any motor weakness, but a subtle difference in heat/cold sensation could be elicited,’ the 2023 letter said.
It comes after former Obama staffers acknowledged concerns regarding Biden’s age, but cautioned against underestimating his vitality.
Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for Barack Obama, underscored the importance of addressing voter apprehensions about Biden’s age, emphasizing that attempts to downplay the issue are misguided.
Despite personally believing in Biden’s mental acuity, Favreau pointed out that Biden often appears frail and mumbly on camera, raising concerns among voters.
He cited polls indicating significant public apprehension about Biden’s age, urging increased visibility for the president to allay doubts.
It comes after a Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report into Biden’s handling of classified documents in which Hur offered a harsh assessment of Biden’s memory and recall abilities.
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The report found evidence Biden “willfully” retained highly classified materials when he was a private citizen, but said that, nonetheless, no criminal charges are warranted for him or anyone else.
Hur claimed the President’s memory faced “significant limitations” which left him “struggling to remember events” including what years he was Vice President or when his son Beau died. The President’s late son died of brain cancer in 2015.
The report read: “In his interview with our office, Mr Biden’s memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 – when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’)
Biden sharply pushed back against Hur’s report, which characterised that the president is a “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
“My memory’s fine,” Biden at a press conference called soon after the report’s release. “Take a look at what I’ve done since I became president…how did that happen? I guess I just forgot what was going on.”
Biden also reacted angrily to comments about his memory of his son’s death, saying: “There is even reference that I don’t remember when my son died. How in the hell dare he raise that?
“Frankly when I was asked the question I thought to myself ‘wasn’t any of their damn business.'”
However, impassioned fight back did little to allay concerns, as during the speech he mistakenly referred to Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah El-Sissi as the president of Mexico, prompting a wave of reactions on social media.
During an appearance on Last Night with Seth Meyers, Biden made light of his age and insisted “is about how old your ideas are,” as he fired back at Republican inaction over the border crisis.
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