We hope former President Joe Biden beats prostate cancer. But his diagnosis with the ailment, supposedly only recently and revealed just last weekend, raises legitimate suspicion. His staff, Cabinet, sycophantic news media, and the Democratic Party lied for years about Biden’s obviously failing capacities and attacked people who pointed out the truth. It would be no surprise to learn that Biden’s cancer, too, has been known for a long time and deliberately and dishonestly concealed.
Democrats may close their eyes and fool themselves that their credibility will magically regenerate without action. But they would be well advised instead to begin the hard work of holding specific people accountable for past fabrications that amounted to nothing less than defrauding the nation and its democracy. The party cannot expect people to “move on,” as it would like, if Democratic leaders don’t deal directly with the well-earned mistrust they have nurtured in the minds of all sensible Americans on most issues.
Just two days before a well-publicized book about Biden’s mental decline and the White House cover-up was to be published, the former president’s office released a statement announcing that the 82-year-old has been diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer. Minutes later, former Obama operative David Axelrod appeared on CNN and intoned the piety that discussion of Biden’s decline and the cover-up “should be more muted and set aside for now as he’s struggling through this.”
This is self-serving political claptrap. The diagnosis raises questions that require urgent answers. Biden’s cancer is so advanced that it registers as nine out of 10 on the Gleason scale. Medical experts say it is almost impossible that such advanced prostate cancer was only just detected, especially in a man who receives as much expert medical attention as does the president of the United States. “Oh, he’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading,” Dr. Zeke Emanuel, brother of Obama White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, told NBC News.
Biden’s office claims the cancer was recently found after he experienced pain and was examined. But the type of cancer Biden has, and the advanced stage of it, should have shown up in blood tests that should have been conducted in each of his annual check-ups. Were these tests done? If not, why not? To anyone who suggests these questions are too intrusive, the answer is that Biden and his aides have been lying about his mental decline for at least five years and they should be allowed to get away with it for not another day.
Those who participated in the cover-up must be held accountable. In interviews last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) refused to answer when asked if he really had no suspicions that Biden was not fit to serve a second term in office. Instead, he kept repeating, “We’re looking forward.” But that is a transparent effort to avoid admitting what he and his party have been doing in the past. They have been lying to the country in pursuit of power.
The reality is that Biden’s mental infirmities were obvious to any honest observer early in his presidency, as has been documented in these pages many times. If his decline was obvious to those who could only watch Biden from outside his administration, it must have been inescapably clear to those who saw him every day in person. What did White House chief of staff Jeff Zients know and when did he know it? What about national security adviser Jake Sullivan? What about White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre? Senior adviser Cedric Richmond? Domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden? Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg? Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen? And, of course, Vice President Kamala Harris?
Then, there are the Democrats in Congress. Just weeks before Biden dropped out, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) claimed he had “watched President Biden run circles around senators inside the Oval Office,” and Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) claimed Biden “has a photographic memory” and is “sharper than anyone I’ve spoken to.”
Do Democratic primary voters trust any of these people? Should anyone else? Biden’s lies, and the lies of everyone named above, purposefully deprived Democratic voters of a voice in the 2024 election. “We’re looking forward” cannot and should not satisfy them for being robbed of this choice.
Democrats can begin the tough work now of pushing everyone associated with the Biden administration out of positions of influence and trust, or they can let their credibility cancer metastasize. The Democratic Party is at historic polling lows for good reason. The public simply doesn’t trust it. Until the party rids itself of the Biden coconspirators, or at the bare minimum elicits a confession and an apology, lack of trust will deepen.