Former President Joe Biden‘s announcement Sunday that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer has led to questions about how something so serious could have been missed or whether he received the appropriate treatment. Critics, meanwhile, have alleged a cover-up after doctors said he likely has had the disease for years.
Biden announced he was diagnosed with prostate cancer with a Gleason score of 9 and in Grade Group 5, the highest grade group of abnormality, according to the American Cancer Society. On Monday, he commented on his diagnosis, thanking people for their support.
“Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support,” he wrote in a social media post Monday morning, along with a smiling picture of he and his wife former first lady Jill Biden, and their cat, Willow.
Doctors have said in the aftermath of the announcement that it is unlikely the aggressive cancer, which has metastasized to Biden’s bones, wasn’t caught earlier, given the top-of-the-line medical care a president receives.
Urologist David Shusterman told NewsNation: “This is what I typically would see in a VA hospital, where a patient hasn’t had medical attention in 10 years, presents to an emergency room with bone pain, and then they find that it’s metastatic prostate cancer.”
Biden’s high score on the Gleason grading scale, which ranks the aggressiveness of prostate cancer, also raises red flags. “The fact that we just find it at a Gleason nine is just pretty much unheard of in this day and age of medicine,” Shusterman said.
Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist, told MSNBC’s Morning Joe: “Oh, he’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading. That’s right. It’s a little surprising. I looked back at the records and there’s no evidence that when he got his health status and the medical records were released, that he had a prostate specific antigen.”
He added: “Now, it is true that a lot of people recommend not doing a prostate-specific antigen after 70, but President Biden’s been in public life a very long time. He was vice president and had a lot of exams under 70. So it’s a little surprising that they didn’t do it. And maybe President Biden decided he didn’t want the test. Many men do decide they don’t want the PSA, but this is also aggressive.”
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC), who is a urologist, theorized that Biden did not have the recommended prostate-specific antigen test, which is a blood test, and a rectal examination.
“Prostate cancer is diagnosed by a blood test called prostate specific antigen, or PSA as well as rectal examination. Makes me wonder why someone running for President of the United States, especially someone who is elderly, did not have these examinations. Screening is critical,” he said.
Murphy said both tests are necessary, not just the blood draw. “A man with a ‘below normal’ PSA can still have prostate cancer. This is why a rectal examination by your physician must ALSO be done. Unfortunately, some doctors are forgoing critical examination and relying only on the blood test. Make sure your doctor does both,” he added.
Murphy didn’t go as far as some MAGA figures in guessing the history of Biden’s condition. He said, “It is medically reckless to assume his prostate cancer” was covered up.
MAGA influencer Laura Loomer led the conspiracy charge, alleging Biden and his family have been covering up his condition for the past four years and that the news is only coming out now to blur the controversy surrounding his mental acuity in Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper’s new book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.
The book alleges that Biden did not recognize actor George Clooney, a Democratic fundraiser and someone he had known for years, at a June 2024 fundraiser. It also details that Democrats in the White House covered up his mental decline and gaslit the public about it.
“Joe Biden has had cancer for a while,” Loomer wrote on X. “He has had it for most of his presidency and the White House physicians have long been suspected of fabricating his medical records. As I reported last year, White House physicians had many late night visits with Biden that went past midnight. Check the logs, you’ll see for yourself.”
Loomer, along with others in the MAGA sphere, pointed out that Biden said he had cancer in a July 2022 speech, which at the time was seen as a verbal gaffe. He had blamed Delaware oil refineries for the high cancer rate in his home state.
“That’s why I and so damn many other people I grew up [with] have cancer and why for the longest time, Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation,” he said.
Biden had cancer removed before he became president, and the White House physician blamed the cancer on sun exposure. “It is well-established that President Biden did spend a good deal of time in the sun in his youth. He has had several localized, non-melanoma skin cancers removed with Mohs surgery before he started his presidency,” White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor wrote in Biden’s 2021 health report.
Other MAGA figures also weighed in. “There is no way in hell they just caught it now. They knew it, probably for years, and lied to the American people,” conservative commentator Matt Walsh wrote on X.
“If he had the best medical care and screenings for 4 years they’d have found it and it means he’s likely had it since before dropping out. Democrats knew,” Timcast IRL host Tim Pool wrote.
President Donald Trump’s family also weighed in, but the president declined to explore theories and wished the former president well.
“What I want to know is how did Dr. Jill Biden miss stage five metastatic cancer or is this yet another coverup???” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X.
BIDEN DIAGNOSED WITH AGGRESSIVE FORM OF PROSTATE CANCER: WHAT TO KNOW
Jill Biden has a doctorate in education, not an M.D.
Biden’s doctors have outlined a hormone treatment for the cancer, though the statement from Biden’s office didn’t say what course they’ve decided to pursue.
