Trump questions Joe Biden’s late cancer diagnosis, suggests cover-up: 'Somebody is not telling the facts'

WASHINGTON, DC: Donald Trump rekindled questions over Joe Biden’s shocking prostate cancer as he expressed shock over why the former president was not diagnosed until after he had left office.

The 78-year-old president was addressing the media in the Oval Office on Monday, May 19, when he cast doubt on the timing of Biden’s advanced prostrate cancer diagnosis, stoking speculation over a potential cover-up.

This came just a day after Trump offered his sympathy to the former president after the announcement of Biden’s diagnosis.

“Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis. We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery,” he said in a Truth Social post.

Trump questions Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis timeline

Joe Biden’s post-presidential office, on May 18, announced that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had metastasized to the bone.

According to the statement, Biden's cancer had a "Gleason score of 9." The Gleason score, also known as the Gleason grading system, indicates the likelihood that the cancer will progress and spread, but it does not forecast the result.

During his remarks on Monday, Trump repeatedly referred to Biden's cancer as at "stage nine," rather than the Gleason score.  Additionally, he appeared to suggest that the physician who examined Biden may have covered up the diagnosis.

"I'm surprised that it wasn't, you know, the public wasn't notified a long time ago because to get to stage nine, that's a long time," Trump said, according to Daily Mail.

After bragging that he had aced his own physical and mentioning that he had completed a cognitive test, the president implied that something was not right with Biden's White House doctor.

"I think that if you look, it's the same doctor that said that Joe was cognitively fine. There was nothing wrong with him," Trump said, before adding, "Maybe it was the same doctor, and somebody is not telling the facts."

He said that while he felt 'badly' about it, he added, "I think people should try and find out what happened."

Growing questions over Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis

Notably, Trump is not the only one who has raised the possibility that the diagnosis was withheld from the public for political reasons.

His son Donald Trump Jr reposted a 2022 clip where Biden, referencing oil spills in Delaware, said, "Joe says he had cancer 2 years ago & everyone said it’s a gaffe. When he clearly had dementia, everyone said he’s lucid. Now that he’s no longer useful they’re all shocked that they missed it. Everyone was in on the cover-up! Who was running the country? We need accountability!"

Vice President JD Vance also questioned the Biden administration over the lack of transparency. "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?"

“In some ways, I blame him less than I blame the people around him,” Vance further added.

Congressman and former White House physician Ronny Jackson later accused Biden’s medical team of prioritizing politics over care.

“Unbelievable this was missed,” he wrote on social media, adding “The truth is [Biden’s] physician was more concerned about assisting with the political cover-up than providing world-class medical care.”

Dr Ezekiel Emanuel, a top oncologist who served as a Covid-19 adviser in the Joe Biden administration, even suggested that the former president likely had cancer since the start of his presidency in 2021.

“He’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading,” the oncologist said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe'.

"He had it while he was president. He probably had it at the start of his presidency in 2021. I don't think there's any disagreement about that,” he further added.