Former US President Joe Biden has made his first public appearance since revealing he has stage 4 prostate cancer. His office confirmed on May 18 that the 82-year-old was diagnosed with an aggressive, hormone-sensitive prostate cancer that spread to his bones.
Speaking to reporters at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut on Friday, where he attended his grandson’s graduation, Biden said he was “feeling great” despite the diagnosis. The former president was accompanied by former First Lady Jill Biden.
Medical experts have questioned how such advanced cancer had gone unnoticed, noting that a Gleason score of 9 is typically caught through routine screening. A Biden spokesperson said on Tuesday that the former president had not been tested for the illness in over a decade, adding that his last known PSA test was in 2014 and that he had never received a prostate cancer diagnosis before last week.
President Donald Trump claimed Biden’s aides used his condition to push unauthorized policies, calling it “treason at the highest level.” Vice President J.D. Vance questioned whether Biden was capable of leading. “I don’t think he was able to do a good job for the American people,” he said.
Republican Senators Ron Johnson and John Cornyn have called for investigations into whether Biden’s condition was concealed while he was in office. Johnson told Axios that he plans to seek testimony from a “couple dozen people” who had or should have “direct contact” with Biden. Cornyn released a letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi calling for an investigation into whether the public was deliberately misled.
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The disclosure comes as a new book, ‘Original Sin’, alleges that Biden’s staff concealed signs of mental decline during his presidency. The report has renewed criticism of his decision to run in 2024, before he withdrew following a poor debate performance.
The former president has denied claims that he suffered from mental decline, saying: “there’s nothing to sustain that.” Separately, following the Democratic Party’s defeat in the 2024 presidential election, Biden said he could have won the election had he remained in the race.
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