Donald Trump has suggested that former President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis was hidden from the public.
On Sunday, Biden’s office announced he had been diagnosed with Gleason score 9 prostate cancer, which had metastasized to the bone.
While Trump released a statement wishing him a fast and successful recovery, he has now told reporters that someone was not telling the truth regarding the diagnosis.
Highlights
- Donald Trump suggested Joe Biden’s Gleason score 9 prostate cancer diagnosis was hidden from the public and called it a sad situation.
- Trump claimed someone was not telling the facts about Biden’s cancer and urged people to find out what had happened.
- Vice President JD Vance questioned Biden’s fitness for presidency due to health, blaming those around Biden for lack of transparency.
- Biden expressed gratitude for support, highlighting strength through adversity following the public announcement of his diagnosis.
Trump told reporters that someone was 'not telling the facts'
Image credits: The White House
“I think it’s very sad, actually. I’m surprised that it wasn’t, you know, the public wasn’t notified a long time ago,” Trump told reporters.
The U.S. president went on to say that he had been tested for prostate cancer and believed the test was “standard” for anyone getting a physical.
“It takes a long time to get to that situation, I think that to get to stage 9, if you take a look, it's the same doctor that said that Joe was cognitively fine and there was nothing wrong with him,” Trump said.
“If that’s the same doctor who said there was nothing wrong there, that’s been proven to be a sad situation.”
“There are things going on that the public wasn’t informed of,” Trump added.
Trump described it as a “very, very sad situation” but told reporters someone was going to have to speak to Biden’s doctor.
“I think people should try and find out what happened,” he said.
“Somebody is not telling the facts; that’s a big problem.”
Trump also went off on a tangent about cognitive tests, telling reporters that he “aced” his—which is seen as a dig at Biden, as he affirmed his belief that anyone running for president should be subjected to the test.
Vice President JD Vance also spoke to reporters on Air Force 2 on Monday about Biden’s diagnosis.
While he said he wished Biden would make “the right recovery,” he went on to say that Biden would not have been fit to serve as president.
“We really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job,” Vance told reporters.
“You can separate the desire for him to have the right health outcome with a recognition that, whether it was doctors or whether there were staffers around the former president, I don’t think he was able to do a good job for the American people.”
Vance said his comments were not made because he disagreed with Biden on policy, but because he did not think he was in good enough health to do the job.
“In some ways, I blame him less than I blame the people around him,” Vance concluded.
“And why didn’t the American people have a better sense of his health picture? Why didn’t the American people have more accurate information about what he was actually dealing with?”
In his first statement since his diagnosis was announced, Biden said he was grateful for the support.
Biden’s diagnosis was announced on Sunday, and conspiracy theories have circulated since
“Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places,” he posted on X.
“Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”
Since Biden’s diagnosis was announced, there have been conspiracy theories circulating—amplified by Donald Trump Jr.—that he has known about his cancer for years.
But while many doctors agree that the cancer would have been present for a long time, there is debate on when exactly it would have been diagnosed.
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist who served on Biden’s Covid-19 advisory board, said Biden probably had cancer at the start of his presidency.
Speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program, he told host Joe Scarborough: “He did not develop it in the last 100, 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 said it was “unlikely” that this stage of cancer would be missed, but it was possible.
“Either they didn’t test for it, or they test for it [and] they didn’t report it. And we didn’t get the information as a public,” he added.
Image credits: Tribune News Service via Getty Images
However, genitourinary medical oncologist Dr. Alicia Morgans told ABC News it is not uncommon for older patients to be diagnosed when the cancer is this advanced.
“Even if we screen everybody perfectly, there will never be 100% detection of prostate cancer because, in truth, cancer does not follow a rule book,” she said.
“And just because we are trying to catch it early doesn't mean it necessarily is present when we screen.”
Even if a patient has an advanced form of cancer, it is still common to experience no symptoms at all, she added.