Washington, United States — US President Donald Trump's allies on Monday used Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis to stoke a growing row over whether the Democrat and his team covered up concerns about his health while in office.
While Trump expressed sadness after Biden was found to have an aggressive form of prostate cancer, his Vice President JD Vance said that "we really do need to be honest" about Biden's fitness.
Trump's son Don Jr. questioned whether there had been a "cover up."
Biden's health was already in the spotlight before his diagnosis with "aggressive" prostate cancer, thanks to a new book on the subject that comes out this week.
The book, Original Sin by CNN journalist Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson of Axios, alleges that Biden's White House covered up signs of his physical decline while he was campaigning against Trump for a second term.
Biden, 82, was the oldest president in US history when he left office in January. He dropped out of the 2024 election after a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June.
Trump meanwhile is the oldest president to be inaugurated, at 78.
Biden's team have consistently denied there was any effort to conceal fears about his health.
"We really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job," Vance told reporters after visiting Pope Leo XIV in Rome.
"You can separate the desire for him to have the right health outcome with a recognition that -- whether it was doctors or whether there were staffers around the former president -- I don't think he was able to do a good job for the American people."
Vance, 40, added: "In some ways, I blame him less than I blame the people around him."
Donald Trump Jr. meanwhile questioned whether the cancer should have been detected earlier -- and also boosted unfounded claims Biden had covered up a previous diagnosis.
Trump Jr.’s comment sparked immediate backlash online, with many slamming the remark as insensitive and cruel toward the ailing former president.
Jill Biden has a doctorate in education, while stage five cancer is not a medically recognized term on a scale that normally goes up to four.
Trump Jr. then posted a clip of Biden -- whose son Beau died of brain cancer -- saying in an apparent gaffe in 2022 that "I, and so damn many other people I grew up with, have cancer."
The White House swerved around questions Monday about whether doctors may have missed Biden's early cancer stages, and whether it was concerned about the standard of care presidents receive.
"Not as far as President Trump is concerned," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
"The White House physician we have here is phenomenal."
Trump and Biden had not spoken since the cancer announcement "but I'm sure the president would be open to doing that," Leavitt added.
Trump has long derided Biden over his cognitive abilities and his record while in office, but he has not yet weighed into the latest row over his bitter rival's health.
Instead he has restricted himself to a social media post saying he was "saddened" by the cancer diagnosis and wishing Biden a "fast and successful recovery."
(Source: Danny KEMP, AFP)