WASHINGTON, D.C. President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis and ongoing mental decline has sparked a firestorm of controversy and criticism for the Biden family, the media, and the Democratic staffers who allegedly helped cover up the former president’s condition.
President Donald Trump said this week he was “surprised the public wasn’t notified a long time ago” given how far Biden’s cancer has progressed.
A Biden spokesperson pushed back on these allegations, saying that the president did not hide a cancer diagnosis. Critics say Biden would have known sooner given how far along the cancer has progressed.
Notably, in a viral moment caught on camera in July 2022, Biden appeared to tell the audience present that he had cancer before the White House later followed up to say Biden misspoke.
“That’s why I and so damn many other people I grew up with have cancer and why for the longest time Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation,” Biden said during his remarks when referring to oil refinery emissions near his childhood home in Delaware.
As The Center Square previously reported, Vice President JD Vance told reporters that the American people should have had more transparency about the president’s health last year.
“In some ways, I blame him less than I blame the people around him,” Vance said. “You can separate the desire for him to have the right health outcome with the recognition that whether it was doctors or whether there were staffers around the former president, I don’t think he was able to do a good job for the American people. And that’s not politics. That’s not because I disagreed with him on policy. That’s because I don’t think that he was in good enough health.”
On Biden’s mental health, the mainstream media in particular has taken criticism for downplaying Biden’s decline. The mental decline was often on display as the president stumbled through speeches and often seemed confused or unsure of where to go after speaking. Eventually, his condition became impossible to ignore during a presidential debate with Trump last summer, effectively ending Biden’s presidential campaign as Democrats and the mainstream media turned against him.
Biden appeared better on some days and worse on others.
Special Counsel Robert Hur released a report in February 2024 calling Biden “an elderly man with a poor memory.” Hur had been tasked with investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents but reported on Biden’s apparent mental deficiencies during questioning, saying Biden had trouble remembering key events in his life.
“In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse,” the report said. “He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 – when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’)”
Biden served as vice president in the administration of then-President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017. After the report was released, Biden held a news conference insisting his memory was “fine.”
“He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died,” the report continued. “And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Eiden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.”
House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., called this week for transcribed interviews with the White House doctor and top Biden officials in his investigation into the alleged coverup of Biden’s mental decline, as The Center Square previously reported.
Comer called for transcribed interviews with Biden’s Physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor; former Director of the Domestic Policy Council Neera Tanden; former Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the First Lady Anthony Bernal; former Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini; and former Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Oval Office Operations Ashley Williams.
“In the last Congress, the Biden White House blocked these individuals from providing testimony to the Oversight Committee as part of the effort to cover-up Biden’s declining health,” Comer said. “Any continued obstruction will be met with swift and decisive action. The American people demand transparency and accountability now.”
