By Darlene Superville and Will Weissert | Related Press
BETHESDA, Md. — President Joe Biden spent about 2 1/2 hours at Walter Reed Nationwide Navy Medical Middle on Wednesday for an annual bodily that might be intently watched because the 81-year-old president seeks reelection.
The oldest president in U.S. historical past, Biden can be 86 by the top of a second time period, ought to he win one. After his final examination, carried out in February 2023, medical doctors 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 urged 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 convey 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 file by being inaugurated at 78 in 2021.
A current particular counsel’s report on the investigation into Biden’s dealing with of categorised 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 similar to when his son Beau died or when he served as vp.
Nonetheless, addressing reporters the night of the report’s launch, Biden mentioned “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 mentioned Wednesday that Biden’s doctor, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, was one in all a workforce of 20 completely different medical specialists who helped full the bodily and informed her he “was pleased with how all the pieces went.” She mentioned O’Connor would launch a “sturdy, complete” memo on the bodily later within the day.
Requested why he wasn’t present process a cognitive check as a part of the bodily, Jean-Pierre mentioned that O’Connor and Biden’s neurologist “don’t imagine he wants one.”
“He passes a cognitive check on daily basis, on daily basis as he strikes from one matter to a different matter, understanding the granular degree of those subjects,” Jean-Pierre mentioned, 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.
“This can be a very rigorous job,” she added, “and the president has been ready to do that job on daily basis 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 mentioned his occasional coughing was as a consequence of acid reflux disease, 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 evening to assist with sleep apnea — which might be mirrored within the ultimate report launched later Wednesday.
The president had a colonoscopy in 2021, wherein a 3-millimeter “benign-appearing polyp” was recognized and eliminated.
Many People, together with Democrats, have expressed reservations about Biden searching for 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, based on 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 current public gaffes. Biden joked that his age was categorised data and urged throughout a taping in New York on Monday of “Late Evening With Seth Meyers ” 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 accurately referring to political commentator Mercedes Schlapp.
Trump has certainly had his personal share of verbal miscues, mixing up 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 just 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 medical doctors take into account somebody overweight beneath this generally used components.
Weissert reported from Washington.
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