President Biden salutes while arriving during an event at the White House on Nov. 27, 2023. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"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.
Deputy press secretary Andrew Bates recently complained about journalists questioning Biden's mental acuity after the Hur report called out the president's "poor memory." (Getty Images)
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.
Sen. Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, are surrounded by supporters and news media at a rally in Wilmington, Delaware, 1988. (PhotoQuest/Getty Images)
"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.
President Biden at his podium during the debate against former President Trump at CNN's studios in Atlanta on June 27, 2024. (Kevin D. Liles for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 14, 2023. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
"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?"
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The Democratic Party will officially nominate its candidate for president next month.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-family-offer-conflicting-accounts-bidens-health-influenced-decision-drop-out