Joe Biden concluded a round of radiation treatment for his prostate cancer on Monday, his daughter disclosed in a touching tribute to the former president.
The 82-year-old was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in May, months after he left office and was replaced by Donald Trump.
‘Ringing the bell! Thank you to the incredible doctors, nurses and staff at Penn Medicine,’ she wrote alongside a video of Biden celebrating.
‘We are so grateful! Dad has been so damn brave throughout his treatment.’
Among the other photos she posted were two of Biden standing with his family and another of him with his physician.
A spokesperson for Biden told ABC it was unclear if he would require any further treatment.
After her string of touching posts dedicated to her father, she shifted to share a photo of demolitions underway at the White House for Trump’s new ballroom.
‘He literally destroys everything GOOD,’ she wrote.
Biden left office in January, six months after he dropped his bid for reelection following a catastrophic debate against Trump amid concerns about his age, health and mental sharpness.
His vice president, Kamala Harris, succeeded him but ultimately lost the electoral college and the public vote by a wide margin.
In May, Biden’s post-presidential office announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and that it had spread to his bones.
The discovery came after he reported urinary symptoms.
At the time, many questioned whether Biden had been running the country while facing cancer, continuing the questioning throughout his term about what the public knew of the president’s decline.
Leading oncologist and former Biden COVID advisor Dr Zeke Emanuel told Morning Joe in May that Biden ‘did not develop [prostate cancer] in the last 100, 200 days.’
‘He had it while he was president,’ Emanuel insisted.
‘He probably had it at the start of his presidency, in 2021. Yes, I don’t think there’s any disagreement about that.’
A Gleason score is used to assess the aggressiveness of prostate cancers.
The scores vary 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.
Emanuel questioned how such an advanced form of the disease had gone under the radar until now and spread to the former president’s bones.
‘He’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading,’ said the doctor, who was named to a 16-person COVID advisory board handpicked by Biden himself.
Biden officials had outlined the severity of the diagnosis in their statement – something Emanuel pointed to as a sign that Biden’s condition has been swept under the rug.
‘I looked back at the records and there’s no evidence that when he got his health status and the medical records were released, that he had a prostate-specific antigen,’ he said. ‘Now, it is true that a lot of people recommend not doing a prostate-specific antigen after 70.
‘But President Biden’s been in public life a very long time,’ Emanuel argued, as theories continue to swirl about the timing of the diagnosis.
‘He was Vice President and had a lot of exams under 70. So it’s a little surprising that they didn’t do it.
‘And maybe President Biden decided he didn’t want the test. Many men do decide they don’t want [it], but this is also aggressive.’
As Emanuel noted, prostate cancer is a condition that, although fatal, generally advances slowly and is frequently discovered early on through PSA blood testing, which is why he and others continue to question the timing of Biden’s diagnosis.
Urinary problems and bone pain are common warning signals in cases as advanced as Biden’s, in addition to elevated PSA levels.
As Emanuel mentioned, presidents generally undergo routine and thorough annual physicals, which would typically include PSA testing.
Doctors declared Biden ‘fit to serve’ as recently as February of last year, indicating that if he did undergo the PSA test at the time, the late-stage metastatic cancer made most of its progress within 15 months.
There is still no evidence to support the claims that Biden and his staff were aware of the illness but decided to keep it a secret.
Officials, in their statement, said the diagnosis came a week after the discovery of the small nodule on Biden’s prostate.
It also cites ‘increasing urinary symptoms’ from the former president that transpired before the discovery, which was made public days after the Democrat appeared on The View.
Last month, Biden had surgery to remove skin cancer lesions from his forehead.
He is also working on his memoir for his time in office, which he reportedly sold to Hachette Book Group for about $10 million in July.
He said at an event earlier that month that he was ‘working my tail off’ to get the memoir finished, indicating it would mainly focus on his four years in office.
In fact, I’m curious about who was in charge of the country throughout Biden’s presidency. When Biden was the vegetable in chief, most likely no one was in charge of the country.
Clearly, Biden was not competent, and much of his presidency was run behind the scenes, but statistically, he wasn’t a bad president; he could have been worse.
I do have compassion for the elderly, though, and they probably knew about his illness. Still, they brushed it under the carpet just so that Joe would be allowed to stay, and they used him as a puppet figurehead until the end, and it did end because people are expendable.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 