Joe Biden still ‘fit for duty’ at 81, doctor says, despite president avoiding cognitive test

Joe Biden “continues to be fit for duty” after his annual physical exam, which did not include a cognitive test, according to his doctor

Dr Kevin O’Connor found that the 81-year-old is in fine condition after he examined the US president at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre for more than two and a half hours.

He wrote in a memo that Mr Biden “is a healthy, active, robust, 81-year-old male who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency”.

He added that Biden “feels well and this year’s physical identifies no new concerns”, after last year’s examination turned up a cancerous lesion.

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Returning to the White House with the medical all-clear, Mr Biden said at an event on combating crime “there is nothing different than last year” with regard to his health.

The oldest ever US president also joked about his age, saying “they think I look too young” to police leaders while gesturing to reporters looking on.

While Mr Biden underwent a physical exam, questions were raised about why the 81-year-old did not undergo a cognitive test as part of the annual appointment.

Speaking on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Dr O’Connor and Biden’s neurologist “don’t believe he needs” a cognitive exam, and added: “He passes a cognitive test every day, every day as he moves from one topic to another topic, understanding the granular level of these topics.

“This is a very rigorous job, and the president has been able to do this job every day for the past three years.”

But his checkup came after a report on Mr Biden’s handling of classified documents called the president’s memory “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations”.

Special counsel Robert Hur chose not to bring criminal charges against Mr Biden, but claimed that he could not remember in interviews when he was vice president or when his son, Beau Biden, had died.

In a terse press conference the day of the report’s release, Mr Biden insisted “my memory is fine”.

Allies called claims the president’s memory is poor “a bucket of BS“, while White House spokesman Ian Sams bashed the “gratuitous remarks” as “wrong and inaccurate”.

Polls show Americans disagree with the president’s defence of his memory and age, with only 37% of Democrats saying Mr Biden should run again in a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Those numbers are down from 52% before the 2022 midterm elections.