White House, family offer conflicting accounts if Biden's health influenced decision to drop out
Days ahead of officially dropping out of the 2024 race, President Biden declared in a media interview that a medical diagnosis from a doctor would likely sway him to reconsider running for a second term.
"If I had some medical condition that emerged," Biden said, when asked in a BET interview this month if there was a reason that would make him reconsider running in 2024. "If doctors came to me and said, ‘You got this problem, that problem.’"
Following weeks of adamant declarations from Biden and his campaign that he was staying in the race, the president dropped out on Sunday afternoon, and shortly after endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
"My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term," Biden posted on X Sunday afternoon announcing his support for Harris.
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"My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats – it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this," he continued.
For years, Biden’s health has been of concern to conservatives, including former White House doctor Ronny Jackson, before the concerns snowballed following Biden’s disastrous debate against former President Trump last month. The debate performance – which included Biden stumbling over his words, trailing off on his thoughts and answering questions in a much more subdued manner than during previous public events – opened the floodgates to legacy media outlets and Democratic allies calling on Biden to drop out over concerns about his mental fitness and age.
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Biden and the administration have hit back that Biden’s mental fitness is sound and that he does not have dementia, Parkinson’s or other diseases. Biden’s brother, however, said following Sunday’s announcement that the president’s health "absolutely" played a role in his decision not to seek re-election just weeks ahead of the Democratic National Convention.
"I'm incredibly proud of my brother. Selfishly, I will have him back to enjoy whatever time we have left. He is a genuine hero. Country over self. Sounds corny in our cynical political environment, but he nor I are cynical. The goal remains the same, defeat Trump and continue the work that Joe has done. My hope is that our party rallies around this heroic act," Frank Biden told CBS News on Sunday.
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"In my humble opinion, absolutely," he said when asked if his brother's health played a role in him bowing out.
Following Frank Biden’s comment, a source close to the Biden family told CBS that the president’s brother is an alcoholic and his claims were "completely untrue."
"Frank Biden suffers from alcoholism and hasn’t spoken to his brother, the president, in weeks. What he said about President Biden’s health being a factor in his decision is completely untrue," the source told the outlet.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital when asked about the president’s health that it did not play a role in his decision to drop out of the race.
"No. Health was not a factor," Bates said Monday morning.
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Concerns surrounding Biden’s mental acuity stretch back to the 2020 election, when White House doctor under the Obama and Trump administrations, Ronny Jackson, sounded the alarm that he didn’t believe Biden was mentally fit for office.
"As a citizen, not as a candidate running for Congress, but as a citizen of this country, I’ve watched Joe Biden on the campaign trail and I am concerned and convinced that he does not have the mental capacity, the cognitive ability, to serve as our commander in chief and our head of state," Jackson, who is now a Republican congressman representing Texas, said in 2020.
The concerns have mounted since, most notably in February of this year when Special Counsel Robert Hur published his report investigating the president's handling of classified documents after his departure as vice president in the Obama administration.
The report stated Hur would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, calling Biden "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
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His mental fitness again came under scrutiny when the Wall Street Journal published a piece earlier this year based on dozens of interviews with lawmakers and administration officials who characterized Biden as losing his mental edge and showing his age in meetings. The White House slammed the article as a partisan hit piece.
In addition to concerns over Biden’s mental acuity, he previously suffered two brain aneurysms in 1988 that nearly claimed his life.
"If he did survive, there was a chance that the part of his brain that governed his speech would be damaged," newly-released book "American Woman," authored by New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers, reported of the 1988 health scare.
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Amid mounting concerns over his mental fitness, Biden was mocked and criticized on social media for a handful of gaffes and miscues during public events in recent months. Those include: former President Obama taking Biden’s wrist to seemingly lead him offstage at a fundraiser in Los Angeles in June; Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni directing Biden back to a gaggle of world leaders in Italy this summer after he took a few steps away from the group to give a thumbs up to a parachutist; and viral video showing the president standing relatively motionless during a Juneteenth concert event at the White House.
The floodgates for criticizing the president’s age and mental acuity opened on June 27, when he delivered his botched debate performance, with Democratic elected officials and traditional allies in political and media orbits calling on Biden to bow out of the race out of concern he could not defeat Trump.
Biden and his campaign, however, repeatedly denied he would bow out of the race and hit back against claims his mental fitness had slipped.
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"Joe Biden has made it more than clear: he’s in this race and he’s in it to win it. Moreover, he’s the presumptive nominee, there is no plan for an alternative nominee," a campaign memo released just two days before Biden dropped out read.
Harris appears to be the likely replacement for Biden as she gains additional endorsements from heavy-hitting Democrats such as former President Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
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Trump responded to the news of Biden dropping out by lambasting him as the "worst president" and remarking that Harris would be an easier Democratic nominee to defeat.
"He is the worst president in the history of our country," Trump told Fox News Digital in a phone interview on Sunday afternoon. "There has never been a president so bad."
"He is not fit to serve," Trump continued. "And I ask: Who is going to be running the country for the next five months?"
The Democratic Party will officially nominate its candidate for president next month.