Oncologist: Biden Has Had Cancer For Years
Zeke Emanuel minced no words.
MEDIAite (“‘He’s Had This For Many Years’: Doctor Shocks Joe Scarborough With Biden Cancer Analysis“):
Morning Joe hosts were left stunned as a cancer doctor suggested Joe Biden’s advanced prostate cancer should have been caught earlier and floated the possibility that the former president either skipped the test or the White House failed to report the results.
Biden was diagnosed with what his office called an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer on Friday in an announcement that went public on Sunday and explained how he was looking at “management” options.
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist who was selected by Biden as a medical expert for his COVID Advisory Board, appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Monday, where his explanation left the hosts quietly listening in shock as he explained his “surprise” that the diagnosis was missed before now.
The doctor explained that the late-stage nature of the diagnosis means that Biden has had the cancer for “many years.”
Host Joe Scarborough asked: “You would say that very few people have actually had it diagnosed at this late stage. That’s rare. Doesn’t it take some time for prostate cancer to develop to a point where it would spread to the bone?”
“Oh, he’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading. That’s right. It’s a little surprising. I looked back at the records and there’s no evidence that when he got his health status and the medical records were released, that he had a prostate specific antigen,” the doctor explained.
Continuing the doctor said: “Now, it is true that a lot of people recommend not doing a prostate-specific antigen after 70, but President Biden’s been in public life a very long time. He was vice president and had a lot of exams under 70. So it’s a little surprising that they didn’t do it. And maybe President Biden decided he didn’t want the test. Many men do decide they don’t want the PSA, but this is also aggressive.”
He added: “When we talk about aggressive part, what we mean is that Gleason score, that score is from two up to ten. And he’s a nine. And that means that the cancer doesn’t look normal, it looks very abnormal, which is probably why it’s in the bone. And as you point out, Joe, it’s been around for a very long time in President Biden – years.”
Shocked, Scarborough pressed: “Exactly how many?”
Emanuel replied: “We don’t know, obviously. And it is a little surprising to many of us oncologists that he wasn’t diagnosed earlier.”
The host pushed further, asking whether taking the test would be seen as “normal” and routine considering his public role.
The doctor replied, explaining that medical ethics required that the option and recommendation of a test would have been discussed with Biden but that the decision to have it would have ultimately rested with him.
He added: “I don’t know what President Biden and his doctor discussed, but I think you are hinting at the other element, which is that President Obama had this test, President Bush had this test. It is a little surprising that the doctor didn’t take it. And if he took it and didn’t report it and it was elevated, that is another case of doctors not being straightforward with us. We’ve had several of them with President Trump, especially around his COVID diagnosis. And if that is true, that would be very troubling.”
Scarborough stopped the doctor to outright ask him to confirm that Biden had had the cancer for years was not “speculation.”
“If he has had prostate cancer that has spread to the bone then he most certainly had it when he was president of the United States?” the host asked.
The doctor was clear in his reply: “Oh yeah. He did not develop it in the last 100 to 200 days. He had it while he was president. He probably had it at the start of his presidency in 2021. Yes, I don’t think there’s any disagreement about that.”
Emanuel is a colorful guy, with some unconventional and controversial views, but he’s a nationally renowned oncologist and bioethicist. And, one presumes given both his family ties and history of appointments, a Democrat. I’d be shocked if he’s not an honest broker on this one.
This comports with some of the discussion we had here after the news broke. It may well be that Biden simply didn’t want to get tested; the exam methodology is not exactly popular. More likely, given his advanced age, he didn’t want the information to be used against him by the opposition party—as they surely would have. But this certainly seems the kind of thing the public is entitled to know when voting for the President.
They stopped testing my dad after he turned 75. Others have stated could be the aggressive, fast moving kind of cancer that they probably just now caught at a routine exam. (BTW – my dad had 3 kinds of cancer when he died, and the one that didn’t kill him was the ordinary kind of prostate cancer.)
This post seems like it’s in bad faith after the previous discussion.
This gets us into so many ethical and policy discussions. The President’s physician is currently an Executive Branch employee and therefore answers to the President, who is also his patient.
So, to some degree, the Presidential physical and all other examinations are opt-in, and the President controls what is shared. Leaving the topic of health privacy aside for the moment, if we are interested in the idea of objective evaluation of the President’s physical state and capacity to serve, it seems like the President should be required to undergo examinations by someone who works for, and whose job is to report back to, the Legislature.
While that might be the right thing to do from a pure policy perspective–it also feels fraught with a lot of challenges and conflict (especially given the role of, and tension between, political parties).
You hinted at this yesterday in your initial post. Quite frankly, I didn’t want to go there. But there are quite a few oncologists and urologists who are in disbelief that this wasn’t known or caught years ago.
On the heals of the profoundly obvious coverup of his mental decline you do have to ask – WTF is going on with media and Democrat operatives. And his wife.
The President’s physician, and even consulting physicians, have no obligation to “inform the public”. Informing the public is the responsibility of the President and his administration.
This is the same for the presidential detail of the Secret Service. They shouldn’t report infidelity or other non-criminal actions by the president as their discretion is vital so that they can do their job. Although one hopes they don’t go as far as the agents in the movie, ‘Absolute Power’. And they don’t have to since something like that would be contracted out via a party crony.
Biden is roughly 80. Ten years is a long time, and if it is a fast growing variant then it wouldn’t have been noticed.
No conspiracy to hide anything from voters needed. Maybe there was, but that’s just speculation.
Meanwhile, Trump has his doctors write fiction, so who knows what he has — although I am hoping for pancreatic cancer.
I’d be ok with laws that require much more disclosure of a President’s health records including what tests were done, but under what we have now it’s all voluntary. Like releasing tax returns.
I would like the media to spend less time focusing on the old man who isn’t president, and more time focusing on the old man who is president.
I bet all those ice cream cones were low fat and Biden never disclosed it.
Very different audiences listed. The media wants clicks. Democratic operatives want to win. And his wife, presumably, wants him around for as long as possible.
The situation is strange, and sort of reminds me of the situation with Lloyd Austin’s prostate cancer diagnosis.
I agree with those who say the public has a right to be informed about all health issues regarding the president. But, this needs to be a standard that is applied to all. Full physicals, with multiple physicians, and full disclosure of all possible health issues.
ETA: Forgot to add that it’s entirely possible this is just bad luck/timing. A fast moving cancer could have appeared after the age when they stop checking. The metastasis to bone can happen quickly–we lost a friend last year to bone cancer, which had metastasized from another cancer…from diagnosis to passing was less than a year.
@Connor:
Given that the current Republican President is 78 and has a family history of dementia on his father’s side, you may not want to grasp at pearls so hard. Or do you think that the Trump administration, Republican operatives, Right Wing Media, or his wife would be transparent about health issues he has?
That’s not a trick question–more a reality check given the advanced age of both candidate (Trump turns 79 this year).
@JKB:
Welcome back. And I’m fully aware that any and all medical releases are up to the President and their team. That was kinda my point–if you want there to be some type of oversight here, then that needs to be done by Congress.
Which gets back to James’ comment:
So long as the individual candidates control this information, then discussions about being “entitled to know” are meaningless.
Since these Republicans wouldn’t ever be hypocritical, the history [date and result] of Trump’s cancer tests should be released immediately.
@Connor: “On the heals of the profoundly obvious coverup of his mental decline you do have to ask – WTF is going on with media and Democrat operatives. And his wife.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Your new moron conspiracy theory is that Biden knew for years that he had cancer and yet was so opposed to anyone finding out that he refused to have it treated in any way so that it would remain a secret.
One of these days I’d like to find a Trumpie who has actually met another human being.
From Stonekettle on BlueSky: We know more about Biden’s prostate than the details of Trump’s secret Central American gulag
I’m just damn glad that our current POTUS is 6’3”, 224 lbs and in perfect health.
“It may well be that Biden simply didn’t want to get tested; the exam methodology is not exactly popular.”
Unless I misunderstood you.. Just to be persnickety, you’re referring to a manual prostate exam and no one likes the doc to be gloving up. However, the need and reliability of that is questionable. The PSA is just a blood test though.
@Gustopher: Not a good comparison considering it probably took years.
My gut reaction is that this stems from a very specific view of counts as masculine versus feminine behaviors.
“Hey, fellas, do preventative medical screenings make you gay??”
@Matt Bernius:
Never mind Trumps age and family history.. it’s as if these people have never heard Trump try to answer a question.
I’m not sure about why I need to care about this. Does prostate cancer speed up rates of mental deterioration? Is risk of sudden death higher than for other septuagenarians? Does it affect the ability to perform the duties of the job exceeding the ways in which being at the far end of one’s 70s, again, does? Is he likely to have been any less capable than Trump seems currently, IRT? Wassup wit da handwringing?
I will tell you frankly, I think this is garbage. I think it is meant to make political hay. I think it is meant to distract.
I think you can find highly respectable oncologists or urologists who will be glad to tell you that it’s garbage. Or if they are more polite, that they disagree.
Do we recall how irresponsible it is for a doctor to diagnose someone from afar?
That is one oncologist’s view, cherry picked by MEDIAite. I have seen others that think it possible this was recently detected.
@charontwo: I think part of what this thread is driving at is that he may well have had it for several years and still only recently detected it. Having and detecting are two different things.
@Gustopher:
About that; when his ear was nicked, he wore that bandage for over a week. Everyone thought it was to get sympathy. Maybe it kept bleeding because he is on blood thinners. Lately, people have noticed a persistent bruise on the back of his right hand that had been badly concealed with makeup. Another indication of blood thinners. Conclusion: he has heart problems or stroke risk we are not being told about.
The best part of all this is that now all the epidiology experts, who became immigration law experts and constitutional law experts, are now the foremost oncologists in the field.
@Jen:
I’ve got to ask why the public has a right to this kind of information. The public has a right to know, per the 25th Amendment, that the President has the capacity to discharge the powers and duties of his office. That’s about it for rights.
Now, during a campaign I can see the public having an interest in all encompassing information, especially if the standards you list – bills of health from multiple physicians, full disclosure of health issues – are applied to all. Prior to election, this information has utility: for example, knowing a candidate has the potential to succumb to an illness would have a voter considering the ability of the VP to step up OR knowing the candidate has cognitive issues would make the voter aware of the potential for chaotic decision making OR awareness of reliance on a kind of medical care might present a conflict of interest.
But, after taking office, what’s the public to do with in-depth information about the physical condition of the POTUS? As long as they are not incapacitated, what could the public, including especially political adversaries, benefit from knowing? The public has no votes to change their minds on per new knowledge. They have no means to act in response, save perhaps “thoughts & prayers.” They won’t learn anything that should legitimately undermine their trust in POTUS’ powers and duties.
@Jen:
I’ve got to ask why the public has a right to this kind of information. The public has a right to know, per the 25th Amendment, that the President has the capacity to discharge the powers and duties of his office. That’s about it for rights.
Now, during a campaign I can see the public having an interest in all encompassing information, especially if the standards you list – bills of health from multiple physicians, full disclosure of health issues – are applied to all. Prior to election, this information has utility: for example, knowing a candidate has the potential to succumb to an illness would have a voter considering the ability of the VP to step up OR knowing the candidate has cognitive issues would make the voter aware of the potential for chaotic decision making OR awareness of reliance on a kind of medical care might present a conflict of interest.
But, after taking office, what’s the public to do with in-depth information about the physical condition of the POTUS? As long as they are not incapacitated, what could the public, including especially political adversaries, benefit from knowing? The public has no votes to change their minds on per new knowledge. They have no means to act in response, save perhaps “thoughts & prayers.” They won’t learn anything that should legitimately undermine their trust in POTUS’ powers and duties.
@Matt Bernius: Come on, Matt, let Connor have is fun! He can gripe some more about things from the past and not have to deal with anything, you know, happening right now.
I get the PSA tests done, have for years. And as a result of those PSA tests I’ve had not one, not two, not even three, but four prostate biopsies all at top rate hospitals – UCLA, Stanford and Johns Hopkins, all negative. I’ve informed my doctor no more. At this point if there’s a tumor it’s a wily sort of tumor, the Vietcong or Apache of tumors, and probably deserves the chance to kill me.
Let me just point out that Steven has strongly suggested we ignore the trolls and despite being someone who loves mocking their Dunning-Kruger-ized intellectual pretensions, I am nevertheless complying. These are thoroughly dishonest and cowardly people.
@Jen:
Your last paragraph was my initial hope/reaction. But real doctors seem to be poo-pooing that is spades.
A point was raised, does the public have the right to know all about a President’s physical issues. I would say no. What if Joe has ED. Do I care or need to know. No.
But cancer? Especially when its an empirical fact that it went metastatic. I think that’s a physical issue different in kind.
As to the substance of the situation, I will again note that I am in favor of a maximum age limit for members of the federal government and would have no problem with creating a process that results in full and clear disclosure of health issues by presidential candidates and presidents.
Tangentially, I am all for legally requiring full and total financial disclosures and legal ways to place assets and businesses in truly blind trusts or some similar mechanism, to include perhaps even disinvestment of certain kinds of businesses before taking office. (I would also be happy to ban elected officials from doing stock trades while in office).
@Daryl:
My late father was 6’4′ and weighed 190. Trump, an alleged 6’3″, weighs 243.
@Matt Bernius:
Your comment seems pointless. Purely speculative, and gratuitous. Its a rationalization. If Trump had cancer I think its a reportable event. Period.
If he has a sore back, knee or bursitis. No.
@Daryl:
Indeed.
FWIW, I am just over 6’2″ and weighed just under 223 this morning. I do not look like an Adonis, but I am in one helluva lot better shape than Trump (and I really would prefer to weigh at least 10 less). I do not believe he weighs 224. Not. At. All.
I’m sorry to hear the cancer has spread to his bones. At his age, that pretty much makes it incurable.
Dilbert creator (and Trump supporter) Scott Adams revealed today he is battling the same cancer and says he expects to die sometime this summer.
On the politics, I don’t see any grand conspiracy here. The theory that Biden and others knew about the cancer, perhaps long ago, and chose to hide it, doesn’t make any sense to me. Even if they wanted to hide it from the public, they would have taken steps to treat it before it became life-threatening. I also have a hard time believing that it wouldn’t have leaked or that Joe and his family would have been so insistent on running again, knowing the cancer was progressing while doing nothing about it.
The most likely explanation is that the cancer was only recently discovered. If he wasn’t getting checked, then that isn’t surprising, and there are valid reasons not to regularly check for that.
As far as what the public should know about a President’s or candidate’s health, the norm should be to disclose anything serious that would affect the ability to do the job. However, I don’t see how that can be mandated short of a Constitutional amendment.
@Jay L Gischer:
I have to admit, this was my first thought as well.
And note that I am never willing to do the “Trump clearly has dementia” routine for the same reason. I have been consistent about this for quite a while now.
@wr:
That’s a really dumb comment. I didn’t say he knew for years. In fact my initial reaction was to discount that notion. Its the medical profession that is making the case. The point is, given recent ass covering by Dem political operatives and media concerning Biden’s obvious mental decline, and suspicions by real live doctors on his CA, it raises the very same issue concerning a health issue. Media and Dem operatives created the issue, your attempts to deflect notwithstanding.
From a real live – and rational – person.
@charontwo:
You could be correct, but I wouldn’t dismiss the notion. Its not just a couple docs, as you apparently want to believe.
BTW – Do you apply the same standard to the paid shills telling us Trump has dementia?
I think something missed here in this thread is that it was James’ initial post that initially raised a question of “how could this happen?” As I’ve noted, I didn’t want to go there, but the medical profession has better insight and apparently a jaundiced view here.
Its the wild eyed partisans, falling into usual form, who must reflexively attack any notion from a dissident commenter that doesn’t support their worldview. I think there was a guy named Pavlov……….
@Connor:
This is the most self-aware thing you have said. Any chance to dish on Dems and you come a runnin’. Less so about serious problems about Trump, which you are silent on.
Kudos for seeing it!
@Connor:
By whom? Of the groups you listed, only one were journalists.
Do you think Presidents, their families, and their parties should voluntarily report any medical conditions that might prevent them from performing their duties?
And, I am not looking for a “based on the Democrats” answer.
Absolute beat-up. Biden’s medical reports were released from time to time. It was open to any of the sudden medical experts to yell “Hey he hasn’t had a PSA test! He could be riddled with prostate cancer for all we know!” To the best of my knowledge none did. They were too busy yelling that he hadn’t had a cognitive function test.
I choose not to have a PSA test because the price of a false positive can be a biopsy procedure that results in lifelong impotence or incontinence while finding no evidence of cancer. Not often, but often enough for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (not “some people”) to advise against PSA testing for men over 70 unless they expressly ask for it. Joe Biden may have made the same decision, and it’s nobody else’s business.
@Scott F.: I have a few thoughts on this, which may seem a bit random but here goes…
First, I believe that the presidency is a contract with the people. Health of that individual is about more than a single person, it’s about discharging one’s duties effectively. Serious illnesses, even those that are treatable, carry global implications. I still believe we should have been told the details of Trump’s bout with covid, not just the illness, but any long covid symptoms.
Second, there is a significant national security risk when a handful of people know about a president’s medical condition. It’s a blackmail risk, and so being more open than not alleviates some of that.
Third, I am just uncomfortable advocating for hiding things.
@RWB: I thought we knew he was on blood thinners. A lot of people his age are, so maybe I just assumed,
I’m way younger and I’m on blood thinners, but mostly for cosmetic reasons. I like my blood to be supple. Also I have two copies of Factor V, so my blood likes to form unsightly clumps which then proceed merrily to my lungs. A bit rude of it.
Anyway, assuming he is on blood thinners, and his therapeutic range is remotely normal medical practice, his blood clots a bit slower (about twice as slow), but it does clot well for small injuries. It wouldn’t require wearing a bandage on a nicked ear for a week — that was just performative.
@Connor:
Now that’s some ̶F̶u̶n̶n̶y̶ ridiculous shit.
@Ken_L: I went through a similar series of tests, multiple biopsies, getting a chip implanted, and finally an operation to remove a suspicious lumplet in the breast….which turned out to be totally harmless.
Heavens preserve me from overanxious radiologists.
@Steven L. Taylor:
I, for one, am in complete agreement.
@Connor:
Now that is some really funny shit.
@Steven L. Taylor:
I do believe you will find that I have posted more agreements with you and commenters here, and criticisms of Trump, then the entirety of bloggers and commenters here.
I call it as I see it. Not so much for most here.
@mattbernius:
“Do you think Presidents, their families, and their parties should voluntarily report any medical conditions that might prevent them from performing their duties?”
Yes.
@Daryl:
Well let’s look at the bright side. Its better than your typical horseshit.
@Connor:
Cool. I agree.
And that, unless there are policy/legislative changes, is dependent on compliance with norms. We have also seen that norms are not great as guardrails.
For the record, my initial (and lightly held take) is that Biden wasn’t being tested for this. It’s essentially a “if you don’t want to know, don’t ask.” Nothing Emmanuel said contradicts that. If evidence surfaces that contradicts that, I’ll reevaluate that position. However, asking “why did no one share this” if it wasn’t being tested for doesn’t make sense–especially since we don’t have transparency into the exam.
On that note, we know that Trump is being tested for cognitive abilities. First, that’s a good thing, given his immediate family history. Second, I really hope (in all sincerity) that he and his family don’t have to deal with those sorts of mental issues. Finally, to your point about transparency, its worth noting that if he and his family choose not to disclose a change in test results, it’s hard for “the media” to report on it (unless someone leaks).
Something I totally agree with you on is that the “Trump has dementia based on my diagnosis of watching his pressers” is ghoulish and needs to stop.
@mattbernius:
BTW, Matt. I had an afterthought. In my business let’s say I was out raising funds for a new investment vehicle. The potential LP’s expect me to be around; that’s who they are betting on.
But I knew I had cancer and might die during the expected life of the fund. If I didn’t disclose it it would perhaps be fraud. Certainly fiduciarily unsound. And maybe an SEC violation. I can tell you this. I wouldn’t do it.
Yet there seems to be this desire to protect Biden. Its pure, wild eyed partisanship. No consideration for the citizenry. The country. Just politics.
Not a good look.
I forget.
Didn’t Trump conceal his very serious condition re: being infected by the Covid virus?
@Connor: You believe your God king is the height and weight in his physical. I am 6’2″ and 275 and ya boi looks like an overstuffed sack of crap compared to me.
Have a damn seat.
@RWB: yeah. The ear thing was crap. He would be missing some of it. It didn’t regenerate. He got hit with splatter and milked it for the rubes.
Finally, two well-read pundits making the point I have kept flogging since 2016, but much more elegantly and without my crude anti-Amercanism/anti-whiteness.
Jonathan V Last @ The Bulwark:
Paul Campos @ LGM:
There’s always a moment in the clinical process with a particularly difficult case did the therapist starts to think this client just might make it. And it’s when they finally take responsibility and admit the bad choices that they’ve been making are inexcusable and indefensible and that they are obligated to do better — despite their diagnosis, despite childhood trauma, despite abuse and mistreatment and all the ways the deck is stacked against them.
If the United States is grow and recover past the dark place as postwar Germany did, tens of millions more Americans need to start talking like Mr. Last and Mr. Campos.
Sadly, there’s still too many excuses and “blame this, that, the other, and especially Biden — but don’t blame the voters.” So as of today, the prognosis for the US reaching its full potential is still pretty grim, even if Democrats retake the House next year and slam the brakes on full Orbanism.
@Steven L. Taylor: Like the saying goes: “Every accusation is a confession.”
@Gustopher: I thought we all realized it was cosmetic when he switched from a band aid to something closer to the size of an incontinence pad because the band aid didn’t show in photos.
Other than totally getting away with it and running the table on Trump, there’s no political defense for the scam Biden’s political team tried. I doubt they went and intentionally covered-up cancer. But if they were doing what they are alleged to be doing, everything regarding his health was news they didn’t want to hear. It’s like the million enablers of the Catholic Church’s pedophile ring.
That it completely blew up in their faces the moment he escaped handling and editing is testimony to how reckless his team was. Getting angry at the logical fallout for what was one of the greatest self-inflicted political wounds of all time is nuts. Who knows what his people were capable of? Their grand plan was to run a guy whose debate performance was so painful to people who were going to vote for him that they couldn’t watch.
The utility of screening for prostate cancer via the PSA test is not black and white. https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD004720.pub3/full?highlightAbstract=screen%7Cscreening%7Cprostate%7Cprosta
Here is a recent recommendation by a US organization https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29801017/
Screening offers a small benefit and real risk of harm. This official body recommends against screening men above the age of seventy; Biden reached that age in 2012.
Not to sure what to think here. Biden, as president was refusing to take a PSA? Not a good look. Yes, a private individual can have that choice but not the president. Is it possible there was no cancer just a few months? I would imagine. Perhaps the story needs to be further distilled, but for what end. Like Cole said, if he died in Office, Kamala becomes president. End of story. The one thing I will stipulate, per Campos, is that we really should not support octogenarians to the Oval Office from either party. The only three octogenarians (anyways Trump soon) don’t do se well. I mean Clinton body bags, Obama tribunals, Kidman (say what?), etc., etc., etc., it just doesn’t sound like someone is all there.
@Assad K:
And more to the point, the puncture to obtain a metabolic panel or a lipid panel can also be used for a PSA. No additional “invasion” is needed.
IMO, the recommendation to suspend PSA after 70 is based in 1) lack of accuracy, 2) insurance – “is the test medically necessary”, and 3) avoiding unnessesary patient anxiety.
@Gustopher:
When I made my last blood donation, I was told that due to changes in how the trauma specialists want victims treated, I now have “special” blood. Trauma outcomes are significantly better if the victim receives blood in the field rather than waiting to arrive at the hospital. They are improved even more if the blood used is not reconstituted from frozen. The gold standard is “single-donor low-titer O-positive” blood. Which is what I have. I was told that my blood would now spend the first two weeks of its shelf life either at the trauma center or in one of the properly-equipped ambulances and only go through the normal separation/freezing processing if it wasn’t (unlikely) used in a trauma case.
@Bobert:
Related to (3) is (4) what do you do next if the test is positive? The slow kind of prostate cancer is common among elderly men. (My doc said, “Reach 90 and you almost certainly have it.”) Few men die of the slow kind, they are more likely to die from something else first. There are definite risks associated with current treatments, or even with biopsies, so it’s not an easy decision.
My comments are not showing up for quite a while after submission, even when I force my browser to bypass all local caching. Firefox, Mint Linux.
@Thomm: Do you think it was a squib, or a false flag, or he’s really a Bohemian Grove vampire?
@Connor: Thanks.
@Connor: My snark is aimed at the highly selective approach to what you comment about.
@DK: I read the JVL piece yesterday evening, and it is spot on.
@Connor:
The key thing you are not mentioning here is that there are specific regulations and laws in place that may require your disclosure. And that there is an enforcement system in place as well.
To my comment that kicked off the thread, there is no such regulations or oversight on the President. I personally think that should change–especially if we continue to elect septa- and octagenarians.
However, until such changes happen (and I’m not holding my breath), using a legal framework like “fraud” to apply to what Biden may or may not have done doesn’t make sense.
First, I agree that any President or public figure doing this isn’t a good look. And I also think this is an important example of how political alignment doesn’t protect from bad actor behavior. I think there is a desire among Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives to pretend that their side would never do “x” and that only the other side would.
That is a line of thinking I’ve tried my best to publicly reject. And others have as well, in particular Dr. T across multiple posts.
AND, on that topic of pure partisanship, the only thing I have consistently commented is that if I were you I wouldn’t be turning this into a pure partisanship or Biden-Bad issue. Unless of course, you’re prepared to go equally hard at Trump if he ends up doing something similar.
And I’ll point out again, that Trump is turning 79 in a few weeks, and will be the age Biden is now by the end of his term. He has a family history that includes some potentially debilitating diseases (in fact we know that he is being tested for cognitive function in each year’s physical–something that makes sense given the family history).
Given Trump’s general relationship to the truth–not to mention his immediate family members and organizations relationship to the truth even in situations where there are legal penalties–I personally wouldn’t bet on him “doing the right thing”–especially if evidence of health issues pop up later in this term.
Not much else to say on this topic.
@Connor: “Media and Dem operatives created the issue, your attempts to deflect notwithstanding.”
So now what — you seem to be claiming that media and dem operatives knew all along about the cancer but Biden didn’t? Did they conspire with Biden’s doctors to hide it from him?
Do you ever actually think through a single thing you type?
Just to close the loop. Biden’s spokesperson stated that he had not had a PSA since 2014 (when he was 71/2 years old).
Why Biden may not have known about his ‘aggressive’ prostate cancer until recently (ABC News)
Maybe the screening protocol for elected officials should be made more stringent. It won’t be tho.
@Fortune: as I said. Hit by splatter from the victim. Maybe if you didn’t try to play stupid rhetorical games all the time you might recognize a blunt statement like that.
Nice try to make me look like a maga-like conspiracy theorist. Play your games with someone else.
@Bobert:
Yeah, no disagreement there.
Cancer, can be treated and cured permanently but only few believe it,, but I was among those who never believed it until doctor herbal cured me of Cancer, I had Cancer for two years and it was eating me one day I found a testimony of someone testifying to the great work of Dr Moses Buba who cured him of Cancer, I was thinking since this man can cure Cancer then . must be able to cure my Cancer too and to my greatest surprise he really cured me of Cancer, I only message him on his email( bu************************@***il.com ) and he replied me and we discussed then he sent me the medicine and today am Cancer free… All thanks to you Dr Moses Buba the herbalist.. Thank you. Contact Dr Moses Buba for any help
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