President Joe Biden underwent his annual physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Wednesday, with doctors saying the oldest leader in US history is healthy enough and fully “fit for duty.”
The two-and-a-half-hour-long medical examination was conducted by a team of 20 doctors, but did not involve any tests to prove Biden’s mental fitness. According to a memo from White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden “feels well” after the routine procedure and tests “identified no new concerns.”
“President Biden is a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” the doctor wrote in a six-page summary of the procedures.
Critics have long blasted the administration for an alleged lack of transparency on Biden’s health, claiming that the president is not mentally fit to hold office – especially after a recent prosecutor’s report suggested that he was too elderly and befuddled to stand trial.
“The president doesn’t need a cognitive test,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday. “That is not my assessment, that is the assessment of the president’s doctor, that is also the assessment of his neurologist.”
Earlier this month, US Representative Ronny Jackson, a Texas Republican who served as White House doctor under then-Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama, and 83 other US House Republicans wrote a letter raising “grave concerns” about President Biden’s cognitive abilities.
The US Department of Justice special counsel Robert Hur's report found some evidence that Biden might have jeopardized national security by keeping classified documents after leaving office as vice president in 2017 – but noted that the president should not be criminally charged, partly because a jury would be reluctant to convict an octogenarian who comes across in interviews as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”