White House Doctor Releases Statement on Biden's Condition That Only Sparks Even More Questions
Americans need more than a note from Joe Biden’s doctor.
In a statement posted to social media on Monday, White House physician Kevin O’Connor declared that the president is well on the road to recovery from his latest bout with COVID and that he “continues to perform all of his presidential duties.”
But if that was supposed to quiet critics, it’s only raised more questions.
President Biden’s COVID symptoms have almost resolved completely, and he continues to perform all of his presidential duties. An update from Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Physician to the President. pic.twitter.com/EfPUgLh3Dx
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 22, 2024
Biden hasn’t been seen in public since Wednesday, according to the Associated Press, when he left Air Force One for a motorcade to his vacation home in Rohoboth Beach, Delaware.
Even the president’s momentous announcement that he would not continue his re-election bid was made in the sterility of a written post on the social media platform X, not even accompanied by a video, though he did promise to address the country later this week.
The liveliest word about Biden came Monday with reports that he’d called Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign headquarters to thank her for her support. But even that’s not being taken at face value.
And now comes news that Biden is supposedly well on the road to recovery — but it’s again part of written statement to X, without so much as a still photo to back it up.
It doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to wonder just what is going on.
It’s understandable that the president is an 81-year-old man whose best days have long since been behind him (in fact, conservatives have understood that for years while the establishment media and Democratic Party tried to gaslight the country that it wasn’t so). It’s understandable that, if he’s recovering from COVID, he’s not looking his best.
But it’s not understandable that he has virtually disappeared from the public eye — including on the day of one of the biggest announcements in American history, not to mention his own life — for what is now going on a week.
And placating announcements that are supposed to reassure the nation that all is well with the president’s health are not nearly enough.
“Would be a good thing for him to appear in public today,” conservative commentator Byron York wrote in an X post responding to O’Connor’s announcement.
It’s been six days since Biden tested positive for Covid. His doctor says symptoms have almost entirely gone away. Would be a good thing for him to appear in public today. pic.twitter.com/vrJfQNE8D1
— Byron York (@ByronYork) July 23, 2024
York wasn’t the only one.
Then why can’t we see a photo or video of Joe Biden?
— Paul A. Szypula (@Bubblebathgirl) July 22, 2024
I would like an update from Joe himself.
— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) July 22, 2024
The whole discussion, the rampant speculation about the true state of the president’s health, has an air of Kremlinology — the science of gleaning political developments in the old Soviet Union by hints that are allowed to be seen in public. (Who’s standing next to whom at the May Day Parade?)
That’s not how the American government is supposed to work, with public statements by public figures, made in public, to a public made up of voters empowered by the Constitution to hold those politicians accountable.
The United States has been through an incapacitated presidency before, when first lady Edith Wilson ran what amounted to a regency regime in the White House for the final year of her husband’s second term in 1920. (Coincidentally, maybe, Woodrow Wilson was a Democrat, too.)
That’s bad enough, but the presidency was relatively tame back then. Those were the years before World War II and the country’s ascension to global superpower. It was before nuclear warfare — and it was before a “nuclear football” was always within the president’s reach.
The American federal government has far more power — over Americans and the world — than it did a century ago. And the man who wields much of that power at the moment is supposedly the president — an obviously addled Joe Biden, physically frail and mentally undependable, and out of the public eye during one of the biggest moments of his long, long, long career.
So, where’s the president now? The White House physician says he’s fine and carrying out his presidential duties — except for maybe, oh, meeting with the leader of an American ally presently fighting for its existence with a savage terrorist group.
The New York Post reported Monday that Biden’s meeting scheduled Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been canceled, but later reported that the meeting’s status was uncertain.
Americans need more than a note from the president’s doctor. They need to see a president.
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