First things first: We don’t wish cancer on anyone. Ever. And we sincerely hope that Joe Biden can beat this Emperor of Maladies and live out his remaining days on Rehoboth Beach, surrounded by the people who love him.
Those things shouldn’t need to be said, but I’m saying them because the rest of this piece will be a lot less charitable.
Yesterday, the world got the news that the former president has been diagnosed with an aggressive and late-stage form of prostate cancer, which has already metastasized to his bones. According to a statement from his personal office, “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management. The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
As the AP reports: “Prostate cancers are graded for aggressiveness using what’s known as a Gleason score. The scores range from 6 to 10, with 8, 9 and 10 prostate cancers behaving more aggressively. Biden’s office said his score was 9, suggesting his cancer is among the most aggressive.”
It was — how shall we put this? — an eyebrow-raising announcement from the same people who last year declared him “fit for duty” for the most demanding job in all the world.
Fit for duty. It all makes perfect sense, given that this was the same guy about whom Joe Scarborough reassured us last year while Biden was still the Democrats’ candidate for president: “Start your tape right now, because I’m about to tell you the truth, and eff you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second, and I’ve known him for years. … If it weren’t the truth, I wouldn’t say it.”
How stupid must Scarborough think his MSNBC audience is to have uttered something so patently ridiculous?
The legacy media have been quick to stress that these cancers can grow undetected, which is, of course, true. But what are the odds that it grew undetected for all these years within the body of the American president?
My take is that they didn’t miss it. Think about it: Joe Biden is arguably the most examined man in the entire world. He’s not like that guy we all know — the guy whose cancer coursed through his body undetected for years due to a lack of screening. As Fox News senior medical correspondent Dr Mark Siegel put it this morning: “It’s really surprising that it’s this advanced without a diagnosis. Now, you can miss prostate cancer, but most of the time, regular screening picks it up. A sitting president, I would expect to have advanced screening. It should not be subject to debate what kind of screening.”
Indeed, prostate exams for older men are among the most fundamental of screenings. But this much is beyond dispute: Joe Biden had this cancer inside him and growing during his presidency. No less a partisan than Ezekiel Emanuel admitted as much to that same incredulous Joe Scarborough earlier this morning:
Scarborough: “This is NOT speculation [right?] He had it when he was president?”
Emanuel: “Oh yeah. He did not develop it in the last 100, 200 days. He had it while he was president. He probably had it at the start of his presidency in 2021. Yes, I don’t think there’s any disagreement about that.”
Second, Biden actually admitted he had cancer back in July 2022, during his remarks in front of that ugly backdrop in Massachusetts. He was talking about industrial pollution but veered off-script: “That’s why I — and so damn many other people I grew up with — have cancer.”
Clean up on Aisle 46! His handlers quickly dismissed the remark and ridiculed the conspiracy theorists, insisting that Biden was talking about skin cancer. But you don’t get skin cancer from industrial pollution, which is precisely what Biden was talking about at the time of his admission.
Next, let’s consider the timing: Right now, in the middle of the leaked release of the devastating Hur tape, and just days ahead of the equally devastating Tapper-Thompson book coming out? This cancer diagnosis is perfectly timed to blunt the waves of condemnation that are headed Biden’s way.
You Republicans and you heartless media types wouldn’t hit a guy with cancer, would ya?
Now let’s consider what an admission of cancer would’ve done to the 2024 presidential race. In an upcoming election that’s expected to be razor-thin, Biden and his handlers knew they couldn’t pile the Big C on top of all the other reasons not to vote for their decrepit incumbent.
And last, these people have lied about EVERYTHING. Why on earth should we trust them now? As National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar puts it, “All presidential physicians, from the era of Woodrow Wilson onward at least, should be presumed to be well-paid official liars working for the men and women surrounding the president and not in the interests of the American people.”
When it comes to lying about Joe Biden’s fitness for office, we should — like the villagers who grew tired of the little boy who kept crying “Wolf!” — take everything these people say with a giant block of salt.
