The oldest sitting president in American history, Joe Biden, underwent his routine medical exam on Wednesday, at a time when his ability to govern is raising doubts that are being exploited by Republican opposition.
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That morning he spent two and a half hours at Walter Reed Military Hospital in suburban Washington for this annual medical exam, the last before the November election in which the 81-year-old Democrat is running.
The test results will be released later today, the White House said.
Doctors “think I look too young,” Joe Biden joked when asked about this medical assessment by reporters.
In February 2023, his doctor Kevin O'Connor concluded that Joe Biden was “in good health”, “vigorous” and “fit” to carry out his duties. A “small” cancerous lesion was then removed from his skin.
The Democrat is running for a second term, at the end of which he would be 86 years old. It is almost certain that he will face his predecessor Donald Trump (77) in the November vote.
Between images of a president stumbling on stairs and confusing remarks during his speeches, Joe Biden's ability to govern until the end of a second term is raising questions within the American electorate and increasing his chances of re-election.
“Bad memory”
In early February, a special prosecutor in charge of investigating a case of secret documents that the American president had in his possession gave up the prosecution, stating, among other things, that a jury would refuse to convict an “elderly man” false Memory”.
The Biden camp then denounced “gratuitous” and “inappropriate” comments. The president even hastily gathered the press to say, “I’m an old man and I know what I’m doing, damn it. I don't have any memory problems.
This special prosecutor asserted in particular that the President had forgotten the date of death of his eldest son Beau during his interviews with him.
Representatives of the conservative camp then called for the implementation of the 25th Amendment, which allows the president's functions to be terminated if he can no longer perform them.
“If we don't have the skills necessary to be judged (…), we certainly don't have the skills necessary to be in the Oval Office,” said the leader of the Republican elected representatives in the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson.
Trump, “the other guy”
Donald Trump, who is almost certain to win the Republican Party's nomination in November, nicknames his opponent “Sleepy Joe” and continues to mock his dithering approach.
“Biden is not too old, he is too incompetent!” wrote the former president on February 14th, who is not free from slips of the tongue or confusion in his speeches.
The incumbent president defended himself in a television interview on Monday by claiming that he was “more solid” than Donald Trump, who was four years his junior.
On November 20, the day Joe Biden celebrated his 81st birthday, Donald Trump published a short letter from his doctor in which he confirmed that he was in “excellent” health and that he had lost weight – without specifying how much – and that the results of his cognitive tests were “extraordinary”.
In an NBC poll, 76% of voters surveyed said they were concerned about Joe Biden's physical and mental ability to serve a second term, compared to just 48% for Donald Trump.