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President Biden underwent the third bodily examination of his presidency on Wednesday amid considerations over his age as he campaigns for a second time period.
Mr. Biden, 81, traveled to Walter Reed Nationwide Army Medical Middle in Bethesda, Md., for his annual bodily, in line with the White Home, and spent about two and a half hours inside Walter Reed. The White Home is predicted to launch a abstract of Mr. Biden’s bodily afterward Wednesday.
“They suppose I look too younger,” Mr. Biden joked as he answered questions from reporters at a spherical desk with regulation enforcement officers on the White Home on Wednesday afternoon. “There’s nothing completely different than final 12 months,” he mentioned, including that “the whole lot’s nice.”
Occasions over the previous few weeks have forged a highlight on Mr. Biden’s age. He was described in a special counsel report over his dealing with of categorized paperwork as a “well-meaning aged man with a poor reminiscence.” Polling exhibits {that a} majority of People have considerations about his age and skill to run for a second time period. And Mr. Biden has made unforced errors at occasions, together with recalling interactions with overseas leaders who would have been lifeless on the time these interactions came about.
Because the presidential election heats up, the president has tried in latest days to assuage considerations over his age by reframing the give attention to his possible Republican challenger, former President Donald J. Trump, who’s 4 years youthful and who makes a variety of unfaithful, exaggerated or outright false claims at every of his public appearances.
“You bought to try the opposite man,” Mr. Biden said throughout an look this week on “Late Night time With Seth Meyers.” “He’s about as outdated as I’m, however he can’t keep in mind his spouse’s identify,” he added, referring to a video by which Mr. Trump, 77, appeared to neglect the identify of his spouse, Melania.
White Home officers have been requested for weeks about whether or not and when Mr. Biden would make the journey to Walter Reed. Final February, Kevin C. O’Connor, the president’s longtime doctor, gave Mr. Biden a clear invoice of well being, calling him a “wholesome, vigorous 80-year-old.”
However Mr. Biden’s advisers have declined to say definitively whether or not the president — the oldest within the nation’s historical past — will take any assessments to evaluate his reminiscence and cognitive skills. In latest weeks, Mr. Trump has bragged about taking the Montreal Cognitive Evaluation, a take a look at that may assist detect dementia and cognitive decline, however he has distorted the facts about the contents of the test. And the Montreal take a look at, experts say, is neither definitive nor diagnostic.
Medical doctors use their discretion in offering the Montreal and different assessments. The Montreal take a look at is really helpful for older adults, however not all medical doctors do it. Physicians usually use conversations with sufferers as a screening machine.
Mr. Biden has additionally change into noticeably slower in his actions in latest months, strolling stiffly as he makes his solution to the rostrum at appearances and taking the quick stairs instantly into the stomach of Air Drive One, quite than the taller stairs to the aircraft’s higher door.
Final 12 months, Dr. O’Connor mentioned the stiffness in Mr. Biden’s gait was the results of “vital spinal arthritis, delicate post-fracture foot arthritis and a gentle sensory peripheral neuropathy of the toes,” for which the president undergoes bodily remedy to take care of flexibility.
His gait is considerably halting, a characteristic that multiple people close to the White House say is partly due to his refusal to put on an orthopedic boot after suffering a hairline fracture in his foot earlier than taking workplace.
