President Biden is “fit for duty” and does not have any new health concerns, his doctor wrote after a physical exam conducted Wednesday that was closely watched amid voter concerns about Biden’s age while seeking reelection.
“The President feels well and this year’s physical identified no new concerns. He continues to be fit for duty and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations,” Dr. Kevin O’Connor wrote in a memo shared with reporters.
The president’s health was not significantly changed from his last physical exam in February 2023, O’Connor wrote. Biden noted he had increased discomfort in his left hip, and an exam revealed “mild arthritic changes.”
The White House is likely to point to the results to brush aside concerns about Biden’s age and fitness for office as he seeks reelection. Biden is 81 and would be 86 at the end of a potential second term.
Polling has shown many voters, including some Democrats, think Biden is too old to run again, and Republicans have constantly seized on his verbal gaffes or his stiff gait to argue he isn’t up to the job.
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted earlier this month found that 86 percent of Americans believe he is too old to serve in office. That poll was conducted days after a special counsel report cleared Biden of wrongdoing in his handling of classified documents but made repeated references to his poor memory.
Biden’s likely opponent, former President Trump, is 77, and has had his own verbal slips in recent weeks. Trump has said Biden is not too old to run again, but that he is “incompetent.”
Trump last November released a note from his doctor that asserted the former president was in “excellent health,” though it provided very few specifics about his most recent physical exam.
Biden, meanwhile, suggested in an interview Monday with late night host Seth Meyers that the real issue was not the candidates’ ages, but “how old [their] ideas are.”
“You got to take a look at the other guy, he’s about as old as I am, but he can’t remember his wife’s name,” Biden said.
