Former President Joe Biden on Friday appeared to claim he could “beat the hell out of” CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson after delivering remarks at a Memorial Day event.
Tapper and Thompson authored a new book titled “Original Sin” about Biden’s physical and mental decline — and its cover-up — while in office. When a reporter pressed him about the recent widespread conversations regarding his mental acuity and physicality while president, he mocked the claims and seemed to take aim at the authors.
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“You can see that I’m mentally incompetent and I can’t walk and I can beat the hell out of both of them,” Biden said.
Biden’s aides also privately discussed the possibility of Biden needing a wheelchair in a potential second term due to his deteriorating physical health, according to “Original Sin.”
Since the book reported details about Biden’s decline, Democrats have questioned whether he should have run for a second term in office. When a reporter pressed him on it, Biden asked why the Democrats critical of him did not challenge him, answering his own question by asserting they would have lost if they had.
“Why didn’t they run against me then? Because I’d have beaten them,” Biden asserted.
The reporter followed up by asking if he had “any regrets.”
“No, I don’t have any regrets,” the former president said.
“There’s a lot going on and I think we’re at a really difficult moment. Not only in American history, but in world history. I think we’re at one of those inflection points in history where the decisions we make in the next little bit are going to determine what things look like in the next 20 years,” he added. “I’ve been talking about that for a long time. And I’m very proud. I put my record as president against any president at all.”
The former president was diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that has metastasized to the bones on May 16, his personal office announced on May 18. Biden also updated reporters about his cancer treatment after his speech.
“It’s all a matter of taking a pill, one particular pill. And for the next six weeks, and then another one,” he said. “And the expectation is we’re gonna be able to beat this. It’s not in any organ. My bones are strong. It hasn’t penetrated. So I’m feeling good.”
During the speech, Biden couldn’t quite finish reciting the most famous line in the Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal, endowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, life, liberty, pursuit of ha — we made it!” he yelled. “That’s who we are! That’s what makes America the most unique nation in the world. Literally, not figuratively.”
The announcement of Biden’s diagnosis came just two days before the release of “Original Sin.”
Biden had a disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump on June 27. He dropped out of the race on July 21 and endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost all seven swing states and the popular vote to Trump in November.
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