• Hints at stepping aside if diagnosed with serious medical condition
• Doctor says US president still has mild Covid symptoms

WASHINGTON: Joe Biden still has mild Covid symptoms but is continuing to work, his White House doctor said on Thursday, a day after the US president tested positive for the disease shortly after conceding he would consider dropping his re-election bid if doctors diagnosed him with a serious medical condition.

“The president is still experiencing mild upper respiratory symptoms associated with his recent Covid-19 infection,” doctor Kevin O’Connor said in a letter. “He does not have a fever and his vital signs remain normal”.

The 81-year-old Democ­rat gave reporters the thumbs up and said “I feel good” as he cut short a trip to Las Vegas and flew to his beach home in Delaw­are to go into isolation, which will take him off the campaign trail for days.

The infection comes at a critical moment for Biden’s campaign, with the president seeking to show he is up to the job after a disastrous debate performance against rival Donald Trump sparked concerns about his health and calls from some Democrats for him to step aside.

It is also the latest development in a tumultuous few days in an already frenetic White House race that saw Trump survive an assassination attempt at a campaign rally. Biden was forced to cancel a speech to a union representing Latino workers who will be crucial for his election bid, having attended a campaign event earlier in the day and given a radio interview.

His spokeswoman Kar­ine Jean-Pierre said Biden was vaccinated and boo­sted, was now taking the Covid medication Paxlovid and “continues to carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation.”

Biden’s illness comes as concerns over the fitness of the oldest US president in US history reach fever pitch. Asked what could make him rethink his presidential bid, Biden told the Black media outlet BET in an interview taped on Tuesday in Las Vegas: “If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if the doctors came and said ‘you’ve got this problem, that problem’.” Biden has so far refused to drop out, and blamed his debate debacle, when he app­eared tired and confused, on a bad cold and jet lag.

But US broadcaster ABC News reported on Wedne­sday that Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had told Biden over the weekend that it would be “better for the country if he were to bow out,” in what would be a fatal blow.

A spokesperson for Schumer played down the report, saying: “Unless ABC’s source is Senator Chuck Schumer or President Joe Biden the reporting is idle speculation. Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden.”

‘Pass the torch’

White House spokesman Andrew Bates pushed back in a statement, saying: “The President told both leaders he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win, and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families.”

Adding further pressure, CNN reported that former House speaker Nancy Pelosi privately told Biden he cannot win and could harm Democ­rats’ chances of recapturing the lower chamber of Congress.

Earlier on Wednesday, Representative Adam Sch­iff of California bec­a­­me the highest-profile Dem­­­oc-r­at to publicly urge Biden to “pass the torch”. “A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Don­ald Trump in Novem­ber,” Schiff said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.

Barack Obama has reportedly told allies that Joe Biden must reconsider whether to stay in the White House race. The former president believed the 81-year-old Biden should “seriously consider the viability of his candidacy,” the Washington Post reported.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2024