After officially launching his reelection campaign, President Joe Biden, 80, has raised concerns about his fitness to serve another term.
They are concerned that Biden, who will be 86 at the end of his second presidency, is already showing signs of ‘cognitive deterioration’ and that the stress of another presidency may worsen his condition and increase the likelihood of an on-screen accident.
The President’s first term has been distinguished by a number of high-profile blunders, mishaps, and visual signs of disorientation, such as stumbling up the steps of Air Force One and falling off his bike in Delaware.
Biden’s regular physical test showed seven issues, including a heart ailment that causes the muscle to pulse excessively quickly, producing dizziness and confusion. He’s also had two brain aneurysms.
‘If I were his geriatrician, I would dissuade him from campaigning,’ said Dr. Elena Mucci, a geriatrician and American College of Physicians member. I would vehemently oppose it.’
‘If you were to survey healthcare professionals, geriatricians, cardiologists, I don’t think you’d find a single physician who would say it’s a good thing for an 86-year-old to become president, both for the sake of his health and for the sake of his country,’ Dr Mucci added.
Biden has a history of atrial fibrillation, or an irregular heartbeat, which he has suffered since 2003. He takes the blood thinner apixaban, Eliquis, to treat the heart condition.
Dr. Mucci said: ‘If you open any medical book, one of the symptoms [of atrial fibrillation] is tiredness.
‘That will limit his activity, and not just limit his activity — he physically might not be able to perform all his duties. It’s just impossible with these conditions at that age.’
Dr. Stuart Fischer, an internal medicine physician in New York, told DailyMail.com: ‘The increased risk is not only from the fibrillation but from secondary effects from the medicine.
‘These people take blood thinners, and when people take these drugs, they are at risk for internal bleeding or serious consequences from a fall.’
Two months ago, Biden stumbled up the stairs of Air Force One as he returned to the United States after a three-day European visit.
He fell up the same stairs two months into his presidency in March 2021. He also fell off his bike in June while spending a weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Dr. Fischer said the older people get, the more frequent and severe the falls become.
He said: ‘[If] someone falls and hits their head or hips while on a blood thinner, there is more of a chance of a medical emergency than for people not on anticoagulants.’
‘A head injury when someone is an anticoagulant is potentially disastrous,’ he said.
Biden’s high cholesterol was also noted in his latest health summary, which Dr. Fischer said is a risk factor for a heart attack, a stroke or kidney disease.
Dr. Fischer said: ‘The blood supply to the heart, kidney, and brain slowly becomes impaired throughout our lives.
‘The longer we live, the higher the chances of poor circulation.’
This week’s poll by The Associated Press found that just 26 percent of Americans and 47 percent of Democrats want Biden to run for a second term.
Interviews with poll respondents suggested the main concern was his age.
A separate CNBC All-America Economic Survey said 70 percent of people did not want Biden to run, mainly citing his age.
Dr. Fischer told DailyMail.com: ‘In a case like President Biden, there is a higher level of responsibility.’
‘He would be the oldest president in history; you couldn’t be at the top of your game in any profession. You can’t fool Mother Nature. No one can try though we may.’
Biden has been careful not to acknowledge or address concerns about his cognitive decline publicly.
Last year he shot down claims he is too old and mentally unfit to be president. ‘Watch me,’ he told CBS correspondent Scott Pelley during an interview.
But Dr. Mucci said it is common for people to downplay their cognitive difficulties.
‘Whether you’re going to lose your presidency, or lose your driving license or your job, subjectively, you will be under-appreciating your symptoms and not putting enough importance to those symptoms,’ she said.
‘I think [Biden] knows exactly what is going on, but he’s not openly acknowledged it because he doesn’t want to lose that presidency.’
Biden’s health issues and old age raise his risk of dementia, according to Dr Dung Trinh, an internal medicine physician in California.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘As we age, we lose around one percent of our brain volume yearly.’
‘The risk of developing Alzheimer’s for someone who’s 70 versus the risk of developing Alzheimer’s for someone who’s 65 — that risk doubles in five years.
‘If you’re in your mid-80s, 85 or beyond, probably 30 to 40 percent of folks show some mild symptoms of cognitive decline.’
Dr. Todd Grande, a mental health expert in Biden’s home state of Delaware, said it was clear that Biden’s ‘performance in the areas of reasoning and memory is impaired.’
Dr. Grande added: ‘It’s hard to imagine how he is fit to be president under these circumstances.’
Despite growing concerns about Biden’s mental acuity, the President’s physician gave him a nearly clean bill of health in February.
He said in a five-page report that the President remains a ‘healthy, vigorous, 80-year-old male, who is fit to execute the duties of the Presidency successfully’.
But the cringeworthy gaffes have persisted. This month Biden — who boasts about his Irish heritage — accidentally referred to British forces that persecuted Irish people instead of a New Zealand rugby team while delivering a speech in Ireland.
Biden has mostly laughed off his blunders. In 2018 referred to himself as a ‘gaffe machine’.
But Dr. Mucci believes they are a sign of deterioration.
‘It’s tough to say what we’re dealing with, is this just healthy aging? Or is this mild cognitive impairment, which is pre-dementia? And time can tell you,’ she said.
‘If he has age-related changes, there will be a continuous and slow decline. It’s inevitable. However, if he’s experiencing mild cognitive impairment, the memory decline will be much faster.
‘We know that about 10 to 15 percent of people with mild cognitive impairment develop dementia.’
She said that even if the slips of the tongue are not a sign of an underlying issue, being an effective president at such an old age is a tall order.
‘My personal and professional opinion is probably no [he won’t be an effective leader].
‘The reason being it’s inevitable that [he] will be in a position where very important decisions have to be made in the blink of an eye, in stressful situations, in a very short period.
‘Someone who is in that position that you are 80 plus and you are undergoing all these age-related changes to the brain, you just might not have that brain processing speed to analyze, process, and digest the information quickly enough to come up with the important decisions. That’s not been ageist, and this is just common sense.’
She added: ‘He might not have dementia, he might not have mild cognitive impairment. This could be all-natural aging, but someone of that status has to be sharp. Someone in his position, I don’t think it’s acceptable [to be forgetting things].’
Over the past few years, President Joe Biden has made the news for things he’s said and done – but not related to policy.
Rather the 79-year-old has had a knack for gaffes.
During speeches or while answering questions, Biden is known to make mistakes, have mix-ups, or even stray.
The commander-in-chief has even been caught tripping a time or two, raising speculation about his physical health.
DailyMail.com has compiled many of Biden’s notable misspeaks, foot-in-mouth moments, and slips.
REPEATEDLY MIXING UP LIBYA AND SYRIA
During a G7 news conference on June 13, Biden repeatedly mixed Syria with Libya while discussing ways to collaborate with Russia.
The 78-year-old gaffe machine mentioned collaborating with Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring economic aid to the people of Libya, generating some puzzled looks from the press pack during the G7 conference in Cornwall, England.
‘I’m hoping that we will find a solution that will allow us to save people’s lives in — for example, in — Libya,’ the president said, naming the north African country for the third time instead of Syria, located in the Middle East.
The White House clarified the confusion, stating that the president was talking to Syria, where Russia and the US have been fighting a decade-long civil war.
All of Biden’s gaffes did not occur in the 2020s or even the 2010s. In reality, several happened in the early 2000s.
After being appointed former President Obama’s running partner, Biden attended a campaign rally in Missouri in September 2008.
From there, he called then-Missouri state senator Chuck Graham, who died last year. to stand up for the masses.
‘I’ve been told that state senator Chuck Graham is here. ‘Get up, Chuck, and let ’em see you,’ Biden replied.
He noticed Graham was in a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy.
‘Oh, God, I adore you. What exactly am I on about? I’ll tell you what, pal, you’re making everyone else rise up.’
Graham told the Columbia Tribune that he was never offended by the error.
