In a recent revelation, Jill Biden, the former First Lady, expressed that President Joe Biden received exceptional medical attention from the White House team. Yet, she noted with some surprise that his prostate cancer diagnosis was overlooked.
Just four months after he left the presidency, Joe Biden was diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer, which had already spread to his bones.
Amid these developments, former President Donald Trump, without presenting any evidence, suggested that Biden’s health condition was deliberately concealed from the public during his term.
In her upcoming memoir, “View from the East Wing,” Jill Biden described the cancer diagnosis as an unexpected blow.
In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, she reiterated her astonishment, stating, “It was shocking.”
During the conversation, correspondent Rita Braver questioned whether the cancer should have been detected earlier by the White House medical staff.
‘Well, you know, the doctors said that according to the American Urological Association, that men over 70 don’t need a PSA, a blood test anymore, because it’s a slow-growing cancer,’ Biden explained.
Sitting down with the Today Show’s Craig Melvin on Monday, Biden described her husband as doing ‘OK.’
Former First Lady Jill Biden said to CBS Sunday Morning that while her husband received ‘amazing care’ from the White House medical team, she said of his prostate cancer: ‘somehow that was missed’
A photo shared of former President Joe Biden (left) and former First Lady Jill Biden (right) and their cat Willow on the heels of making the former President’s cancer diagnosis public last May
‘I think if he had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer, that’s one thing because that can be cured,’ she explained. ‘But the fact that it metastasized to his bones, that makes it a whole different story.’
‘And so I think Joe will live with cancer till the rest of his life,’ she added.
The former First Lady’s interview with Melvin got heated at times, as she continued to claim that the former President’s addled 2024 debate performance was a one-off.
Melvin pointed to Special Counsel Robert Hur’s assessment of Biden being a ‘sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’
He also brought up George Clooney’s assertion that the Biden he saw at a June Hollywood fundraiser was the same man that Americans saw on the Atlanta debate stage.
Dr Biden visibly winced when Melvin mentioned Clooney’s name.
‘He aged. He did. He got older. And we all saw him aging. There were the words he would forget. But we were all aging,’ she said with a laugh.
She pointed at her husband’s White House medical team again.
The Today Show’s Craig Melvin (left) interviewed former First Lady Jill Biden (right) Monday morning ahead of the release of her White House memoir
‘The doctors did assure us, I mean, he had an exam every year, a health exam, like every President does. The doctors assured us he was, you know, he was healthy,’ she said. ‘And I saw him doing the job every single day.’
The former first lady noted that her husband stuttered a bit more at night when he got tired.
‘But he was still doing the job, and he was doing a good job,’ she added.
Melvin also asked the former first lady to square her positive public comments about the former President’s debate performance with what she’s revealed in recent days, that it was so worrying that she thought he’d had a ‘stroke.’
‘Well, Craig, look at it from my point of view. So, I’m watching, just like everybody else was, scared to death, like, what is going on? He gets off the stage, I see, he appears to be OK. He says to me, “Jill, I really, in other words messed up, didn’t I?” And I said, “Yes, you did,”‘ she recalled.
She said her mind was racing as they headed to the next event – a watch party in the Atlanta area with Democratic supporters.
‘What do I say that will lift him up that is true? I want to say things that are true. So, I said, you answered every question,’ Biden recalled.
Melvin noted: ‘That’s a pretty low bar.’
‘I’m his wife. I’m not going to get out on the stage there and say, Joe, you really screwed that up,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t come out and – I mean, really, publicly say, Joe, you did a terrible job in a debate?’
Some Democrats have been griping about the timing of the release of Dr Biden’s book as the party tries to get its footing ahead of the midterm elections.
‘I’m not reopening old wounds,’ she insisted to Melvin.
‘We are moving on,’ she added. ‘You know Democrats have a great future. I think, we’re looking forward to winning the midterms, and I think things are going to move forward in a more positive way. And yes, we look back, and we’re going to learn from the mistakes made.’
