'Need to be honest': Vance questions Biden's health as president after cancer diagnosis
WASHINGTON − Vice President JD Vance questioned whether Joe Biden had been fit for duty in the White House following news the former president has an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force Two after meeting Pope Leo XIV in Rome, Vance said he wishes the best for Biden, adding that "hopefully he makes the right recovery." Vance then reflected on Biden's four years in the White House.
"Whether the right time to have this conversation is now or at some point in the future, we really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job," Vance said. "You can separate the desire for him to have the right health outcome with the 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."
More: Former President Joe Biden diagnosed with 'aggressive form' of prostate cancer
"That's not politics. That's not because I disagreed with him on policy," Vance said. "That's because I don't think that he was in good enough health."
Biden, 82, was diagnosed on May 16 with prostate cancer that had spread to the bone after a nodule was discovered on his prostate following urinary symptoms, a spokesperson said. Biden has a Gleason score of 9 and a grade group 5, which is on the higher end of the scale, meaning the cancer is more likely to grow and spread quickly.
Biden's most recent annual physical as president took place in February 2024. The president's physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, did not identify any signs of cancer, describing Biden as a "healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency." The report cited Biden's sleep apnea treatment and stiffened gait from arthritis.
"I blame him less than I blame the people around him," Vance said of Biden. "Why didn't the American people have a better sense of his health picture? Why didn't the American people have more accurate information about what he was actually dealing with?"
More: After Joe Biden medical diagnosis report, here are risks and symptoms of prostate cancer
In February 2023, a skin lesion was removed from Biden's chest, but his doctor said no additional treatment was needed for what is known as basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer.
Biden, the oldest person ever elected as U.S. president, dropped out of the 2024 presidential election last July after he struggled to piece together coherent thoughts during a disastrous debate with President Donald Trump that exposed an aging president.
More: Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis and when illness strikes just as you finally retire
Multiple books published in the months after Biden's presidency have detailed efforts by the White House to conceal Biden's decline, forcing Democrats to answer whether they believe the octogenarian president should have passed the torcher earlier.
"This is serious stuff. This is a guy who carries around the nuclear football for the world's largest nuclear arsenal," Vance said. "This is not child's play, and we can pray for good health, but also recognize that if you're not in good enough health to do the job, you shouldn't be doing the job."
More: Trump still 'trusts' doctors after shocking Biden cancer diagnosis
Trump, in a May 18 statement, said he and first lady Melania Trump were saddened to hear about Biden's cancer and extended their "warmest and best wishes" to the Biden family.
The next day, Trump questioned why the "public wasn't notified a long time ago" about Biden's cancer, appearing to put his weight behind an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that the Biden White House knew about the former president's cancer but withheld it from the public.
"I think it's very sad, actually," Trump told reporters when asked about Biden's diagnosis. "I'm surprised that the public wasn't notified a long time ago because to get to stage 9 ‒ that's a long time."
Trump misstated Biden's diagnosis. Stage 9 cancer does not exist. Biden's cancer is considered stage 4, the most severe level, which is defined by the cancer spreading to other parts of the body.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on May 19 said Trump still has faith in the quality of health care being provided to him in the wake of his predecessor's cancer diagnosis. "He trusts his physicians," Leavitt said.
This story has been updated to include new information.
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: VP Vance questions Biden's health as president after cancer diagnosis
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While a dismissal might seem like the end of a battle to remain in the county, some leaving courthouses have instead been met by ICE agents who are then free to arrest them and place them in expedited removal proceedings, speeding their deportation without a court hearing. Rekha Sharma-Crawford, an immigration lawyer and board member with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) called it a 'bait and switch.' 'The troubling thing here is that people are doing the right thing and going to court. They hear what they think is great news, that their case is dismissed. But instead, they are subject to a bait and switch and a plainclothes ICE agent will then arrest them. They are detained and then they are pressured to sign documents that basically sign away all of their rights, and they are subject to expedited removal and don't have a chance for a full and fair hearing,' she said in a call with reporters. Vadzim Baluty, a 47-year-old Belarusian political activist who was granted asylum in 2022 after fleeing the Lukashenko dictatorship, thought ICE was aware of his petition to bring his children to the country. He also didn't think Aliaksandr Baluty, now 21, would be deported after entering the country legally. His son was permitted to enter the U.S. through Mexico after waiting in the country seven months for an appointment made through the Biden-era CBP One app. Such a dynamic has only become possible with the shift from the Trump administration, which has expanded the scope of expedited removals. While the process previously was used only for migrants within two weeks of their entering the country and within 100 miles of the border, the Trump administration now allows the tool to be used up to two years after a person enters the U.S. regardless of where they are in the country. Critics call the move an end run around due process and fault the administration for using ICE officers who are often not in uniform and may be wearing masks. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) went to an immigration courthouse in his district last week, sitting in on court proceedings and witnessing ICE prosecutors dismiss cases followed by migrants being arrested by plainclothes agents as they exited — something he called 'Gestapo-like behavior.' 'The Department of Homeland Security has implemented, over the last week, a coordinated effort to do an end run around our legal system in order to remove nonviolent, noncriminal immigrants trying to come into this country through a lawful pathway of immigration proceedings, and in many cases, asylum proceedings,' he said at a press conference afterward. 'By recommending dismissal of their cases, the Department of Homeland Security is essentially taking jurisdiction away from the court, removing the asylum application from going forward, and then allowing the immigration agents to arrest these people and put them in a deportation proceeding under a different authority than the one that they just dismissed, which has fewer rights and applies in very few circumstances.' Sharma-Crawford said it's especially confusing for pro se litigants — those representing themselves in court. Not only are they being approached by plainclothes officers, but they may not know what to do next. Those placed in expedited removal are not entitled to a hearing, but they can request an interview with an asylum officer if they fear they will be persecuted if returned to their home country. If they pass that screening, their case could be returned to immigration court. Vadzim Baluty has since hired attorney Malinda Schmiechen to represent his son, who asked for the credible fear interview that would route his case back into the immigration court system. Aliaksandr Baluty told them how during a visit to register for the mandatory draft, military officials in the country made a veiled comment about his father and said they were going to teach him to 'love the motherland.' Another officer in the room said, 'You will be in the army for your father.' 'The draft officer said that I — in the army — I would be punished for my father,' Aliaksandr Baluty told an asylum officer, according to a transcript of the interview his attorney shared with The Hill. At his father's advice, Aliaksandr Baluty fled that night to nearby Georgia. Military officials later showed up at his mother's house with a forged conscription document, saying they would prosecute him as a draft dodger. Schmiechen was informed Thursday night, however, that an asylum officer rejected the claim, calling it 'a betrayal all around.' 'I feel like this is a betrayal against our law, against the America that is a sanctuary for so many, and against young Aliaksandr, who fled for his life and seeks to live peacefully with his family,' Schmiechen told The Hill. 'It's a betrayal because the government attorneys betrayed the law with their motion to dismiss, knowing that it would lead to Aliaksandr's detention. It's a betrayal because the American government is using taxpayer money unnecessarily to detain Aliaksandr, and it's a betrayal to Aliaksandr, whose detention is treating him like a criminal, though he's not one.' The arrests come as the GOP at large has vented frustration at the immigration court system, where cases can languish in a years-long backlog. The Department of Homeland Security defended the courthouse arrests as well as their use of expedited removal. 'Most aliens who illegally entered the United States within the past two years are subject to expedited removals. Biden ignored this legal fact and chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including violent criminals, into the country with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been,' the department said in a statement. 'If they have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation.' Goldman also criticized ICE for using plainclothes officers, saying that in his observations, agents had printed out photos of those they would be arresting and were often wearing masks. 'When I asked them, 'Why are you wearing a mask?' One person told me, 'Because it's cold.' I asked him if he would testify to that under oath, and he walked away and wouldn't respond to me,' he said. 'Another person admitted that they were wearing masks so that they are not caught on video. And my question to them is: 'If what you are doing is legitimate, is lawful, is totally aboveboard, why do you need to cover your face?'' Schmiechen said she's working quickly to explore other options for Aliaksandr Baluty, including requesting that his credible fear claims be reviewed by an immigration court judge. If that doesn't work, she's planning to make a filing in federal court. 'I just feel like we don't have much time at this point,' she said. To Vadzim Baluty, the whole episode has chilling parallels with what he experienced in Belarus. 'This is how it began,' he said. The arrest of his son, just feet from the courthouse doors, happened in less than 60 seconds and left him in shock. He said he never imagined the words 'stop prosecution' could have led to 'expulsion from the country and separation of father and son.' 'Everything is starting to remind us that we are not in a free country. What is happening today is vaguely reminiscent of the birth of a dictatorship, when they categorically begin to solve the political issue at the moment with immigration,' he said. 'I don't feel safe now. None of the immigrants feel safe in the U.S.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
