Former Commerce secretary questions whether Biden's 'well enough' to remain president
Former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who served under the Trump administration, raised concerns Sunday over President Biden's ability to finish his term.
“If he’s not well enough to run, how can he be well enough to stay in there as president?” Ross said Sunday in an interview on "The Cats Roundtable" with host John Catsimatidis.
His question comes after Biden announced late last month that he would be stepping aside from the presidential race against former President Trump — and later endorsed Vice President Harris to run in his place. His decision came after weeks of pressure from fellow Democrats for him to drop out of the race following a rough debate performance that sparked worries over his age, mental fitness and ability to recapture the White House in the fall.
In the weeks since, Harris has garnered key endorsements, officially became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president and raked in large fundraising hauls.
Asked by Catsimatidis about who he believes is in control in the Oval Office if it isn't Biden, Ross answered, "clearly it must be the staff people."
“You saw and remember the press conferences,” he continued. “President Biden would occasionally say, ‘Oh, my staff won’t let me talk about that,’ ‘My staff doesn’t like me saying this or that.’”
"So, clearly, the staff has been uniquely in control of a lot of activities, even before he announced he was not going to run," the former Trump official added.
The White House and Biden have pushed back on questions around his health. The administration released a letter last month from the president's physician attempting to clarify why a neurologist with a specialty in Parkinson's disease had gone to the White House multiple times.
“Seeing patients at the White House is something that Dr. [Kevin] Cannard has been doing for a dozen years,” Dr. Kevin O’Connor wrote in the letter, talking about the neurologist.
“Dr. Cannard was chosen for this responsibility not because he is a movement disorder specialist, but because he is a highly trained and highly regarded neurologist here at Walter Reed and across the Military Health System, with a very wide expertise which makes him flexible to see a variety of patients and problems," he added.