Latest news with #MichaelDukakis
Daily Mail
19-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Did the 'cover-up' over Biden's mental decline also conceal the truth about how long he's really been suffering from prostate cancer?
Joe Biden had blood in his spinal fluid and a leaking 'balloon-shaped' aneurysm below the base of his brain. His situation was so serious his wife Jill had been told not to enter his hospital room as the devout Catholic was read the Last Rites. It was February 1988, and only a few months earlier, the then 45-year-old had dramatically pulled out of his first bid for the US presidency. Now he had been rushed to the operating theatre in Wilmington, Delaware, with agonising neck pain. Thanks to the interventions of his doctors, Biden survived. It later emerged he'd kept quiet about the debilitating headaches he'd been suffering from for the past year, and which had reduced him to carrying around a large bottle of Tylenol [paracetamol] painkiller. As Jill told him at the time, it was just as well he'd pulled out of the Democratic nomination battle against Michael Dukakis to fight George HW Bush. Otherwise he might have been campaigning when his aneurysm started bleeding and he would likely have tried to push on regardless, with fatal consequences. That may be so – but it's also true that, had he been honest about his symptoms, doctors would have been alerted to his life-threatening condition sooner. Almost 40 years on, Americans are now feverishly speculating whether the ex-president, his formidable wife Jill and his inner circle kept quiet about another life-threatening affliction – after it emerged that Biden, now 82, is suffering with prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. Biden's illness is rated 9 on the prostate cancer 'Gleason scale', which means it is extremely aggressive, and at stage 4 (there is no stage 5 with this cancer) in general medical terms. Doctors say that though the cancer cannot be cured, it can be treated. A statement issued by Biden's office on Sunday claimed that he had been diagnosed just two days earlier after experiencing 'urinary symptoms', with medics finding a small 'nodule' on his prostate. Yesterday, however, a string of medical experts lined up to express profound scepticism at this version of events. They insist that the highly experienced doctors attending to a US president, who was subject to a rigorous annual health check, of such advanced years would never have missed such a serious cancer. Several said they were convinced that Biden must have been ill with the disease – which typically takes longer to progress than other cancers – for years, and that he, his doctors and perhaps his closest family and aides therefore must have known about it. Dr Zeke Emanuel, a senior oncologist who was a member of Biden's Covid advisory board, said he was sure Biden 'did not develop [prostate cancer] in the last, 100, 200 days', adding: 'He probably had it at the start of his presidency, in 2021… I don't think there's any disagreement about that… 'He's had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading.' New York urologist and prostate-cancer specialist Dr David Shusterman said patients with Biden's advanced condition who came to see him typically 'hadn't had medical attention in ten years [and] presented to an emergency room with bone pain'. He added: 'The fact that we just find it at a Gleason 9 is pretty much unheard of in this day and age.' Fellow cancer expert Dr Stephen Quay was also dubious of the Biden camp's explanation, saying it would constitute medical 'malpractice' for Biden's doctors to have failed to test a serving or former US president periodically for signs of prostate cancer (for example by monitoring so-called 'PSA levels' in his blood). Dr Quay, a former faculty member of the Stanford University School of Medicine, added: 'It is highly likely he was carrying a diagnosis of prostate cancer throughout his White House tenure and the American people were uninformed.' Yale University Professor Howie Forman, a radiology and biomedical imaging expert who has worked in the US Senate on health policy, agreed: 'It is inconceivable that this was not being followed before he left the presidency.' Meanwhile, a 2022 video began recirculating on social media in which Biden had declared during a speech on the environment: 'I – and so damn many other people I grew up with – have cancer.' At the time, White House staff insisted he was referring to several non-melanoma skin cancers that had been removed before he took office. Yesterday, however, Republicans claimed that he had inadvertently admitted to suffering from a condition he was trying to keep secret. There is, to be clear, no solid evidence that Biden's cancer has been covered up. However, the debate seems set to continue. After all, Biden's health and fitness for high office were long key concerns for voters, and have been sharply questioned in recent days. A new book, Original Sin, has revealed the extent to which the Biden White House covered up and misled America about the dramatic mental decline of the oldest president in US history. Published today, the book – which makes no mention of Biden's prostate cancer – lays out in devastating detail how his administration sought to conceal and lie about the extent of his mental decline during his presidency. It also makes clear that, as on his brush with death in 1988 and when Biden's son Beau was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2013 before dying two years later, the Bidens have long sought to suppress news of their physical health issues. The book, written by political journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, reveals that while Dr Kevin O'Connor, the president's long-standing physician, repeatedly gave him a clean bill of health in public, he privately expressed grave concerns about the toll the presidency was taking on the ageing leader, urging aides to allow him to take more rest. The book's authors suggest Dr O'Connor was too close to his patient. In particular, according to Original Sin, a code of omerta appears to have developed around Biden in the final months of his presidency, during which his closest aides and family, slavishly supported by America's Left-leaning media, continued to insist in defiance of all evidence that he was fit to serve – while behind closed doors he was deteriorating fast. At the weekend, audio was released for the first time of an interview Biden had given in 2023 to Robert Hur, the special counsel who was investigating his handling of certain classified documents. In it, the rambling ex-president failed to recall basic dates and details, at one point asking Hur: 'Am I making any sense to you?' Later, he asked: 'When did I stop being vice president?' Hur ultimately declined to recommend charges against Biden in part because, he said, a jury would find him to be a 'sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory'. At the time, America's Democrat-leaning media lambasted Hur for political 'bias' – but this was just one of many occasions, according to Original Sin, when Left-wing TV stations and newspapers cravenly collaborated with the Biden camp and 'aggressively disputed' that there was anything wrong with him. In the end, of course, such machinations proved entirely counterproductive. It was only following his disastrous TV debate performance against Donald Trump in June 2024, during which Biden repeatedly lost his train of thought and babbled incoherently, that he finally announced he wouldn't be running that November. This left the Democrats stuck with Vice President Kamala Harris, who had just 107 days to campaign against her well-funded opponent. Many Democrats have still not forgiven Biden – who has hardly helped matters by insisting in subsequent interviews that he could have beaten Trump had he stood against him and that claims of his mental decline were 'wrong'. For his part, Trump struck a rare conciliatory note yesterday, saying he was 'saddened' to hear of his bitter ex-adversary's illness – while the King, who is still undergoing treatment for his own undisclosed cancer, wrote privately to the ex-president expressing his support. However, Trump's oldest son Donald Jr went on the attack, insisting the Biden family had covered up Joe's cancer and scornfully asking how it was possible 'Dr Jill' (who has a PhD in education rather than a medical doctorate) didn't know about it. Authors Thompson and Tapper note that presidents throughout history have hidden their medical ailments from the public – from Franklin Roosevelt's use of a wheelchair following about of polio in his 30s to Ronald Reagan's Alzheimer's – but Biden's suppression of his own cognitive condition, they argue, was 'the most consequential'. After Biden failed to recognise George Clooney at a glitzy Democrat fundraising party the actor was co-hosting with his fellow Oscar winner Julia Roberts 11 months ago, Clooney, according to the book's authors, reportedly 'felt a knot form in his stomach'. Finally an aide told Biden who he was talking to and Biden limply replied: 'Oh, yeah! Hi, George!' The following month, Clooney publicly called on Biden to step down from the presidential campaign in an op-ed in the New York Times – and senior Biden aide Steve Ricchetti was furious. 'Internally, he threatened to shut Clooney down – some of his colleagues thought he sounded like a Mob boss,' reports Original Sin. Ricchetti is identified in the book as one of a clutch of top aides who refused to be honest with Biden about his chances of beating Trump, encouraging him to believe the delusion that he could win. They found a powerful ally in Jill, who emerges in the book as a ferocious champion of her husband who ignored anyone who brought up his age or suggested he wasn't up to running again. She'd changed dramatically, note the authors, from the woman who made her opposition to Joe's presidential bid only too clear in 2003, when Democrat grandees visited the Biden home. The former part-time model, who'd been sitting by the swimming pool in a bikini, scrawled 'NO' in large letters across her stomach in a felt-tip pen and marched silently through the room where the men were meeting. According to the new book, Jill more than anyone could see her husband's terrible decline – and yet she was the most determined that he run for re-election. Original Sin reveals how 'Dr Biden' (as she insists on being addressed) increased her power inside the White House by ensuring that senior aides she'd appointed, one of whom was known as her 'Rasputin', enforced loyalty to the Bidens with an iron rod. On myriad occasions, top Democrat politicians, advisers and backers pleaded with the members of the Biden camp to persuade him not to run again, only to be spurned. Even acclaimed director Steven Spielberg was brought in at one point, the book reveals, to improve Biden's faltering image. 'They worked on lighting, and a better microphone to amplify his voice when he would oddly speak in barely a whisper,' says the book. 'The E.T. director would also coach the president before speeches like the State of the Union. [Allies] hoped that voters' age concerns about Biden could be assuaged with a little Hollywood magic.' According to the new book, Biden's decline was never so obvious to the world as during the D-Day commemorations in Normandy last June when he appeared lost at times in photographs with other leaders. 'One House Democrat was shocked,' it reports. 'Biden looked frailer and was shuffling more than many of the World War II veterans who were nearing 100 [years old].' Biden's cancer may have been missed by mistake, as some doctors claim. However, the circumstances are undoubtedly odd – even without the medical experts weighing in with their own misgivings. The questions about whether the Bidens kept silent on more than Joe's mental decline are unlikely to go away.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
In 1988, R.E.M. were so disgusted with the state of the US that guitarist Peter Buck admitted to wanting to shoot President Bush
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. "I recommend anyone reading this who's a psycho and can buy a gun to shoot George Bush. I'm serious. l would consider it myself. I live in a country that I hate! I live in a country where I wanna shoot politicians, where the only way you can make a real dent is not voting, it's murder." It's October 1988, and speaking to Melody Maker writer Steve Sutherland ahead of the forthcoming US presidential election, R.E.M.'s Peter Buck is delivering a somewhat provocative state-of-the-nation address. The guitarist is in a Athens, Georgia drinking den named the GA Bar, and, by his own admission, he's "a little tipsy", drinking Bloody Marys in an attempt to battle the jetlag he's feeling having flown home from London the previous day. The 1988 US presidential election would see Ronald Reagan's Vice President George Bush representing the Republican Party versus the Democratic Party candidate Michael Dukakis, Governor of Massachusetts. Given that Reagan had been elected by a landslide majority in 1980 and 1984, Buck was adamant that "that asshole Bush" was going to become the 41st President of the United States, and he wasn't happy about it."I'm so fucking furious, I feel like shooting people," he declared, "George Bush first and then the people who vote for him." "I hate this country, I really hate America," he continued. "We've turned into such selfish bastards. If Adolf Hitler came back and said, 'I won't raise taxes', he'd win in a landslide. I'm washing my hands of it. I don't give a shit. We're essentially a nation of fat-assed used-car salesmen that wanna protect our pile. That's all we are, and that disgusts me." "D'you know the weirdest thing?," Buck continued. "Everything that Reagan's done that I hate and despise benefits me. I mean, you wouldn't believe how much less tax I pay - it went down from 44 per cent to 28 per cent. I don't wanna put money into Cruise missiles, but I want money to go to people who are hungry, I want money to go to people who need houses... and he cuts the tax and what's left goes to make bombs. That's obscene!" At the time, R.E.M. were about to release their sixth studio album, Green, which would be released by Warners on November 8, 1988, that date explicitly chosen to coincide with the date of the presidential election. The album would go on to sell over two million copies in the US, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard 200, the indie-rock band's highest chart placing at the time. The group once said that the record was full of "big dumb bubble-gum pop songs", but songs such as Orange Crush (about the Vietnam War) and World Leader Pretend carried on some of the political musings heard on the previous year's Document album. Frontman Michael Stipe would insist that he wasn't the man to look to for answers, however."I have no answers to anything, I'm just kind of questioning with everyone else," he told Melody Maker in a previous interview. "I don't really like being misperceived as being shamanistic or some man of wisdom or something like that, because I don't think I am." His buddy Buck, however, wasn't shy about airing his personal political views at the time. "Really, anyone who wants to be a politician is not qualified," he suggested. "Hell, I don't even like Dukakis - he's a politician. They should all be shot." As far as we're aware, Buck's comments did not lead to any demands for R.E.M.'s cancellation, removal from festival bills, or life imprisonment by band managers, opportunistic politicians or professionally outraged newspaper columnists. Simpler times.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kitty Dukakis, wife of former Massachusetts governor and presidential hopeful Michael Dukakis, dead at 88
Kitty Dukakis, the wife of former Massachusetts governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis, has died at the age of 88, Fox News Digital has confirmed. Her son, John Dukakis, said that the wife and mother of three died Friday night "surrounded by family." "She was born on December 26, 1936, and lived a full life fighting to make the world a better place and sharing her vulnerabilities to help others face theirs," he said in a statement. "She was loving, feisty and fun, and had a keen sensitivity to people from all walks of life. She and our dad, Michael Dukakis, shared an enviable partnership for over 60 years and loved each other deeply. Thank you to all who have touched our lives over the years or who were touched by our mother." Michael Dukakis Bashes Trump, Says Voters Must 'Get This Guy Out Of The White House Before He Destroys Us' The Washington Post and the New York Times both reported that John Dukakis said his mother's cause of death was complications from dementia and that she died at her home in Brookline, Mass. Kitty Dukakis was the first lady of Massachusetts during her husband's three nonconsecutive terms and supported Michael Dukakis during his unsuccessful presidential run against Vice President George H.W. Bush. Read On The Fox News App In what was considered a pivotal moment of the campaign, Michael Dukakis was asked by CNN moderator Bernard Shaw during the first presidential debate, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis was raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" He responded flatly, "No, I don't, Bernard," and went on to reiterate his opposition to the death penalty. Kitty Dukakis later said her husband admitted "I really blew it," with an answer that was widely perceived as emotionless and tone-deaf. She also condemned the question as "outrageous." Dukakis Calls Progressive 'Defund The Police' Push 'Nuts,' Says It Takes Away From Proven Community Policing In her 60s, Kitty Dukakis, supported by her husband, became an advocate for electroconvulsive therapy to treat depression. She authored books opening up about her addiction to diet pills and alcohol. She was of Jewish background, though her husband was Greek Orthodox. A longtime advocate who was involved in projects on subjects including the homeless, refugees, and AIDS, Kitty Dukakis was appointed by former President Jimmy Carter, and by former President H.W. Bush, her husband's former rival, to commissions that led to the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Her father was Ellis Dickson, the first violinist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a conductor of the Boston Pops. She detailed a more complicated relationship with her mother, Jane (Goldberg) Dickson, in her first book, "Now You Know."Original article source: Kitty Dukakis, wife of former Massachusetts governor and presidential hopeful Michael Dukakis, dead at 88
Fox News
22-03-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Kitty Dukakis, wife of former Massachusetts governor and presidential hopeful Michael Dukakis, dead at 88
Kitty Dukakis, the wife of former Massachusetts governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis, has died at the age of 88, Fox News Digital has confirmed. Her son, John Dukakis, said that the wife and mother of three died Friday night "surrounded by family." "She was born on December 26, 1936, and lived a full life fighting to make the world a better place and sharing her vulnerabilities to help others face theirs," he said in a statement. "She was loving, feisty and fun, and had a keen sensitivity to people from all walks of life. She and our dad, Michael Dukakis, shared an enviable partnership for over 60 years and loved each other deeply. Thank you to all who have touched our lives over the years or who were touched by our mother." The Washington Post and the New York Times both reported that John Dukakis said his mother's cause of death was complications from dementia and that she died at her home in Brookline, Mass. Kitty Dukakis was the first lady of Massachusetts during her husband's three nonconsecutive terms and supported Michael Dukakis during his unsuccessful presidential run against Vice President George H.W. Bush. In what was considered a pivotal moment of the campaign, Michael Dukakis was asked by CNN moderator Bernard Shaw during the first presidential debate, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis was raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" He responded flatly, "No, I don't, Bernard," and went on to reiterate his opposition to the death penalty. Kitty Dukakis later said her husband admitted "I really blew it," with an answer that was widely perceived as emotionless and tone-deaf. She also condemned the question as "outrageous." In her 60s, Kitty Dukakis, supported by her husband, became an advocate for electroconvulsive therapy to treat depression. She authored books opening up about her addiction to diet pills and alcohol. She was of Jewish background, though her husband was Greek Orthodox. A longtime advocate who was involved in projects on subjects including the homeless, refugees, and AIDS, Kitty Dukakis was appointed by former President Jimmy Carter, and by former President H.W. Bush, her husband's former rival, to commissions that led to the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Her father was Ellis Dickson, the first violinist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a conductor of the Boston Pops. She detailed a more complicated relationship with her mother, Jane (Goldberg) Dickson, in her first book, "Now You Know."
Boston Globe
11-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Michael Dukakis, a political lion in winter, reflects on his life and service
Advertisement He no longer moves as easily, is recovering from a minor medical procedure, and his political battles are a memory. But a visit on a recent afternoon found Dukakis — state representative, three-term Massachusetts governor, Democratic presidential nominee, university professor — eager to talk about his full, personal life and commitment to public service. Governor Michael Dukakis announced his candidacy for reelection in Boston on April 26, 1986. George Rizer/Globe Staff His vision of good government has not changed over the many years, he said. It's a vision based on honesty, working for the common good, and assembling a team of smart, committed public servants, traits that are not taken for granted in politics these days. 'I was fortunate as governor,' Dukakis said of the so-called Massachusetts Miracle, an economic turnaround in the 1980s that catapulted him within sight of the presidency. 'I was able to attract terrific people to work for the state.' Dukakis won his first term as governor in 1974, inheriting a state budget deficit that ballooned to $500 million and a double-digit unemployment rate. Although he scaled back the deficit, his combination of budget cuts and tax increases contributed to his defeat by Edward J. King in the 1978 Democratic primary. But Dukakis rebounded to reclaim the governor's office in 1982 and 1986, winning national praise for the state's robust economy and securing his party's 1988 nomination for president. Advertisement 'I'm not sure it was a miracle, but it's what happened,' Dukakis said of the state's high-tech boom. 'It wasn't just me, but a lot of good people who made a huge difference. Today, I think it's fair to say, it's probably one of the better-governed states. We can be proud.' Presidential candidate and Governor Michael Dukakis shook hands with the crowd after delivering a campaign speech in New Haven, CT., on Oct. 20, 1988. Paul R. Benoit/Globe Staff If Dukakis is plagued by lingering regrets, they didn't surface during a wide-ranging, hourlong conversation. Not even about the 1988 presidential race that he lost decisively to Vice President George H.W. Bush in a campaign Dukakis once had led by double digits in the polls. Republican ads that portrayed the governor as soft on crime, as well as a controversial debate performance, preceded his defeat. Related : One Republican ad highlighted the case of Massachusetts inmate Willie Horton, a Black man who had been convicted of murder, was released on furlough, and attacked a white couple in their Maryland home while Dukakis was governor. In a nationally televised debate during the campaign, Dukakis offered what was considered a bland, dispassionate response about whether he would support capital punishment if his wife were raped and murdered. He repeated his opposition to the death penalty and never mentioned Kitty's name. 'It happened, I lost, and you can't go back,' Dukakis said of the election. 'I've been blessed with a great spouse and wonderful kids and a great life. So I didn't become president, but that's the way it goes.' If Dukakis is a slow-moving lion in winter these days, spending much of his time poring over newspapers, he remains a sharply opinionated one. In an exchange with Scott Kerman, a friend and author of an upcoming biography of the governor who was visiting that day, Dukakis described Trump as corrupt and incompetent, with the potential to do harm both domestically and internationally. Advertisement However, Dukakis quickly pointed out, Trump won the election, and elections have consequences. 'I hope this is just a phase, and I hope that by the time this guy finishes, people will understand there is a difference,' said Dukakis, who also seemed puzzled by former vice president Kamala Harris's performance in the race. 'She seemed to be doing well, and she seemed to have people responding to her. But, in any event, she lost, and the other guy won. I hope I'll still be around when he leaves.' Related : For Dukakis, politics is never far away. He follows developments in state and national government closely, and said he occasionally receives calls to talk over a piece of policy. It's an interest connected to a life of public service, he said, one his Greek immigrant parents instilled in him. Their success and love of the United States are part of the reason he holds immigrants and their contributions in such high regard, and criticizes those who seek to demonize them. 'My father was 16, and my mother was 9 when they came over. Not just them, but immigrants generally, how do they do this?' said Dukakis, shaking his head, noting that his father graduated from Bates College and Harvard Medical School, and that his mother earned Phi Beta Kappa honors at Bates. 'Immigrants are still doing it, and they're doing it every day. And the young people, too, so many of them. Their parents came over here and did great things, and now the kids are doing remarkable things,' he added. Advertisement Dukakis reverted over and over to memories of childhood, family, and Brookline. Kitty, 88, slept in the adjacent room as he spoke, and Dukakis brightened when he recalled meeting her for the first time while running the Boston Marathon in 1951 as a high school senior. Kitty, a Brookline freshman, was offering water to runners as they passed through the town on Beacon Street. Governor Michael Dukakis and his wife, Kitty, at his inauguration in Boston on Jan. 2, 1975. Bill Brett/Globe Staff 'That was how I met my future wife,' Dukakis said, chuckling at the memory. 'She handed me a cup of water.' After his political career, Dukakis taught for many years at Northeastern University, close to where his father had practiced medicine on Huntington Avenue for more than five decades. Dukakis also advocated for the restoration of the Emerald Necklace, picked up countless pieces of litter along the way, and touted the benefits of making In addition, he has promoted a 'I loved being governor,' Dukakis said. 'But it was more than just my being governor. It was the fact that we could attract terrific young people and make the state a model for the kind of government that I believe in. That continues at the state level, notwithstanding what's going on nationally.' When asked about his legacy, Dukakis paused and looked away before answering. 'Probably, at least I hope it will be, that I left an example for young people,' he said. 'Especially those whose parents came over here as immigrants, and who made a little contribution to their community and their country. Advertisement 'You know, that's the American story.' Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey with Michael Dukakis in 2024 at Northeastern University, where he taught. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at
