(Washington) The oldest serving president in American history, Joe Biden remains “fit” to exercise his functions, his doctor assured Wednesday following the annual examination of the 81-year-old leader, at a time when his capacity to govern raises doubts, exploited by the Republican opposition.
The American president “continues to be fit to exercise his functions and fully assumes all his responsibilities without any exemption or accommodation,” declared White House physician Kevin O’Connor.
“President Biden is a healthy, active and strong 81-year-old man,” his longtime doctor concluded in a letter released by the White House.
Read the letter from Joe Biden’s doctor released by the White House (in English)
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.
The doctors “think I look too young,” Joe Biden then joked to journalists, who hopes to be re-elected in November against, barring any surprises, Donald Trump, 77 years old.
In February 2023, the Dr O’Connor had already concluded that Joe Biden was “healthy,” “vigorous” and “fit” to serve in office. He then had a “small” cancerous lesion removed from his skin.
If he wins in the November election, the Democrat will be 86 years old at the end of his second term.
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.
“Bad memory”
At the beginning of February, a special prosecutor responsible for investigating a case of classified documents that the American president had in his possession gave up prosecuting him, explaining, among other things, that a jury would be loath to sentence an “elderly man to the wrong memory “.
PHOTO STEVE RUARK, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Special Prosecutor Robert Hur
The Biden camp then denounced “gratuitous” and “inappropriate” comments. The president even hastily summoned the press to say: “I’m an old man and I know what I’m doing, dammit. I don’t have any memory problems.”
This special prosecutor assured in particular that the president had, during his interviews with him, forgotten the date of the death of his eldest son Beau.
Figures from the conservative camp then demanded the implementation of the 25e amendment to the Constitution, which allows the functions of the president to be terminated if the latter is no longer able to assume them.
“When one does not have the faculties required to be judged […]we certainly do not have the skills required to be in the Oval Office,” said the leader of Republican elected officials in the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson.
Trump, “the other guy”
PHOTO ELIZABETH FRANTZ, REUTERS
Former US President and candidate for the Republican nomination Donald Trump
Donald Trump, almost assured of winning the Republican Party nomination for November, nicknames his opponent “Sleeping Joe” and continues to make fun of his hesitant approach.
“Biden is not too old, he is too incompetent!” », The former president also wrote on February 14, who is not himself free from slips of the tongue or confusion in his speeches.
The current president, during a television interview on Monday, defended himself by claiming to be stronger “than the other guy”, in reference to Donald Trump, four years his junior.
On November 20, the day Joe Biden celebrated his 81st birthday, Donald Trump published a short letter from his doctor stating that he was in “excellent” health, that he had lost weight – without specifying how much – and that the His cognitive test results were “exceptional.”
In an NBC poll, 76% of voters surveyed said they were concerned about Joe Biden’s physical and mental capacity to serve a second term, compared to only 48% for Donald Trump.