Photo: Andrew Harnik Associated Press US President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington on Wednesday
Danny Kemp – Agence France-Presse and Ulysse Bellier – Agence France-Presse in Washington
7:55 p.m.
- United States
The oldest sitting 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 moment when his ability to govern raises doubts, exploited by the republican opposition.
The US president “continues to be fit to perform his duties and fully fulfills all of his responsibilities without any exemption or accommodation,” said White House physician Kevin O’Connor.
“President Biden is a healthy, active and strong 81-year-old man,” his longtime physician concluded in a letter released by the White House.
Joe Biden spent two and a half hours in the morning at Walter Reed military hospital, in the suburbs of Washington, for this annual medical examination, the last before the November election.< /p>
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.
By February 2023, Dr. O’Connor had already 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.
If he wins the November vote, the Democrat will be 86 years old at the end of his second term.
Between images of a president tripping on stairs and confusing comments during speeches, Joe Biden's ability to govern until the end of a second term raises questions within the American electorate and undermines his chances of re-election.
“Bad memory”
At the beginning of February, a special prosecutor charged with 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 “.
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 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 called for the implementation of the 25th amendment to the Constitution, which allows the president's functions to be terminated if the latter is no longer able to assume them.
“When we do not have the faculties required to be judged […], we certainly do not have the faculties required to be in the Oval Office,” asserted the leader of Republican elected officials in the House of Representatives , Mike Johnson.
Trump, “the other guy”
Donald Trump, almost assured of winning the Republican Party nomination in November, nicknames his opponent “Sleepy 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 say they are concerned about Joe Biden's physical and mental capacity to serve a second term, compared to only 48% for Donald Trump.