Joe Biden's sad, complicated exit from American politics

Joe Biden's exit from American politics was never going to be easy.

After a lifetime in public office that ended with an unprecedented turnaround on whether to seek a second term, the former president has watched his mental acuity increasingly scrutinized and his White House legacy systematically steamrolled by his successor −all this in the four months since he moved out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Now the announcement that Biden, 82, has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, one that has metastasized to the bone, has prompted a surge of sympathy and compassion. But it has also underscored growing questions and, among some top Democrats, anger about his initial decision to run for reelection despite signs of physical frailty and the reality of advanced age.

"So far, so good," Biden told USA TODAY in January. "But who knows what I'm going to be when I'm 86 years old?"

In the Oval Office interview, he said he still believed that he could have defeated Donald Trump in 2024, as he had in 2020, if he hadn't pulled out of the contest after a wandering, faltering debate performance last June. His vice president, Kamala Harris, claimed the Democratic nomination but lost the general election.

Among many independent political analysts, though, Biden's defeat seemed all but guaranteed, given voters' alarm about inflation and immigration as well as concern about his vigor. Some speculate that an earlier decision not to run again, and the full-scale primary campaign that would have followed, would have allowed some other Democratic candidate to prevail in November.

Now there's also this debate: Was there was a cover-up to keep the American people from understanding the state of the president's health?

'Is this yet another coverup???'

Monitoring the health of presidents has long been a difficult enterprise, back to the disabling stroke that Woodrow Wilson suffered in 1919; his wife became his gatekeeper. When Ronald Reagan announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1994, some observers wondered if he had shown early signs of the disorder before he left the White House in 1989.

Even Trump, 78, has faced questions about his mental acuity, though he has bragged about acing a cognitive test used to screen for dementia during his medical checkup in April.

"Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden's recent medical diagnosis," he said on Truth Social Sunday. "We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery."

But his son, Donald Trump Jr., who initially reposted a message that said, "Politics aside, we wish him a speedy recovery," followed up with a message suggesting a conspiracy and mocking former first lady Jill Biden, who has a doctorate in education.

"What I want to know is how did Dr. Jill Biden miss stage five metastatic cancer or is this yet another coverup???" he wrote. He reposted a message that asserted, without providing evidence, that it was "highly likely" that Biden had been diagnosed with the cancer while he was president. (There are four stages of cancer.)

The younger Trump pinned the message to the top of his feed on the social media site X, giving it special prominence to his 15 million followers.

Allegations of a cover-up have been fueled by an explosive book out May 20 by Jake Tapper of CNN and Alex Thompson of Axios. Titled "Original Sin," it details how an innermost circle of White House aides protected Biden − limiting the hours of the day that he worked, the length of speeches he gave, even the access of members of his Cabinet.

The release last week of the audio recording of Biden's interview in 2023 with special counsel Robert Hur has ignited more controversy. In it, Biden speaks haltingly and struggles to remember names and dates.

Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee said Friday that the panel would resume an inquiry into allegations of a cover-up. "Clearly, from that interview, which was many, many months prior to the heavy use of the autopen, Joe Biden wasn't capable of making decisions," Comer said on Fox News's "Hannity." "He wasn't coherent."

Biden's medical diagnosis isn't likely to deter the GOP investigations ahead.

"Look, I will say, whether the right time to have this conversation is now or sometime in the future, we really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job," Vice President JD Vance told reporters aboard Air Force Two.

At a moment Biden had expected to write his memoirs and plan his presidential library, he instead will face not only cancer treatment but also congressional inquiries and an avalanche of questions.

A reluctant Democratic reckoning

Meanwhile, Democratic congressional leaders have been dodging discussions about whether they recognized a worrisome decline in Biden's acuity and, if so, what they did or should have done about it.

"We're looking forward," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said last week when Kasie Hunt of CNN pressed him on what he observed in private meetings with Biden. When she asked whether Biden's decision had cost Democrats the White House, he would only repeat, "We're looking forward."

"That's it?" she asked. "That's it," he said.

But some Democrats believe the party has no choice but to explore Biden's complicated exit from politics.

"It was a mistake" for Biden to remain in the race as long as he did, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It was a mistake for Democrats to not listen to the voters earlier and set up a process that would have gotten us in a position where we could have been more competitive that fall."

By the 2028 presidential contest, economic and other issues will presumably dominate, but the residue of Biden's departure could be a factor as well.

His most fervent defenders and members of his administration, such as former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, could find themselves forced to address what they knew and what they did.

And those who had some distance from the former president − Illinois Gov. JD Pritzker, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, even New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez − could be boosted as the sort of fresh faces the party needs.

At the moment, Democrats could use a boost.

Only 17% of Americans have any optimism about the future of the Democratic Party, according to an Associated Press poll this month, a precipitous decline from the 31% who felt that way about a year ago. (Twenty-five percent are now optimistic about the future of the GOP.) Even among Democrats, only about a third expressed any optimism for their party.

Rebuilding credibility for the future, some say, may first require reckoning with the past.