The oldest sitting president in American history, Joe Biden had his routine medical examination on Wednesday. The 81-year-old leader remains “fit” to exercise his functions and has not experienced any significant change in his state of health, his doctor said on Wednesday February 28, while his ability to govern raises doubts, exploited by the Republican opposition.
The US president “continues to be fit to perform his duties and fully assumes all of his responsibilities without any exemption or accommodation,” said White House physician Kevin O’Connor. Joe Biden spent two and a half hours in the morning at the Walter Reed military hospital, in the suburbs of Washington, for this annual medical examination, the last before the November election, in which he is running. Doctors “think I look too young,” joked Joe Biden, when asked by journalists about this medical assessment.
Executive spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre defended Joe Biden's failure to take a cognitive test, saying doctors determined the president did not need one. “The president takes a cognitive test every day” because of the rigors of the office, she added.
A state of health which worries for his re-election
In February 2023, Dr. O’Connor concluded that Joe Biden was “in good health,” “vigorous,” and “fit” to serve in office. He then had a “small” cancerous lesion removed from his skin.
The Democrat is running for a second term, at the end of which he would be 86 years old. He is almost guaranteed to face his predecessor Donald Trump, 77, in the November vote. He nicknames his opponent “Sleeping Joe” and never stops making fun of his hesitant approach. “Biden is not too old, he is too incompetent! “, also wrote on February 14 the former president, who is not himself free from slips of the tongue or confusion in his speeches.
Between the images of a president tripping on stairs and confusing remarks during speeches, Joe Biden's ability to govern until the end of a second term raises questions within the American electorate and begins his chances of re-election.
