Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi assured Tuesday that it was “legitimate” to question the state of health of President Joe Biden, who has been under scrutiny since his catastrophic performance during a debate Thursday against Donald Trump.
“I think it’s fair to ask whether this is just a blip or a lasting state,” the former House Speaker, who is still very influential within her party, told MSNBC.
The California representative, herself 84, praised the Democratic leader’s “vision” for the country.
“I’m not a doctor. I can’t say what’s going to happen three or four years from now, but I think from my experience, and this is what you asked me, I think he’s going to continue to be a great president of the United States,” she said.
Calls from Democratic elected officials urging the president and his entourage to be transparent about the 81-year-old leader’s health have been increasing in recent hours.
Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said on Monday that Americans wanted to be “sure” that Joe Biden was “honest about his condition,” in an interview broadcast on Monday by a local television channel.
For months, the White House has been brushing aside, sometimes with a certain irritation, any questions about the physical and mental faculties of the American president, whose physical and verbal ease has declined.
While the party’s heavyweights have publicly stated their support for him so far, since last Thursday’s debate, nervousness has been growing among supporters and donors, some of whom accuse the president’s inner circle of a lack of transparency about his abilities.
Others are asking Joe Biden to respond concretely to concerns, by increasing the number of press conferences or direct exchanges with journalists or supporters.
On Monday, a reporter asked the president out of the blue whether he would withdraw from the race at the end of a short speech he had just given at the White House about a Supreme Court decision. Biden turned on his heel and left the room without answering.