President Joe Biden was seen in public Tuesday for the first time since he left Las Vegas last week after it was announced that he had COVID-19.
The incumbent president spoke at an NAACP convention on Tuesday, before being spotted Wednesday in a viral video.
Biden, who announced on X Sunday that he would no longer seek re-election, briefly acknowledged questions from reporters, according to the New York Post.
When reporters at Joint Base Andrews shouted at the president asking how he was feeling, he replied “Well.”
Biden then entered Air Force One to return to Washington:
Trending:
🚨#BREAKING: President Joe Biden appeared in public for the first time in six days since his week-long COVID diagnosis, during which he remained silent and was not heard from. Later, as he boarded Air Force One in Delaware en route to the White House, he announced the suspension… pic.twitter.com/GeMonwkowS
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) July 23, 2024
Earlier, Biden was asked about the message he will deliver Wednesday night explaining his reasons for quitting the race.
“Watch and listen. Why don’t you wait and hear what I say,” he said, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.
Do you think Biden is fit to serve?
When further pressed on why he quit, Biden laughed and entered the presidential vehicle to make the trip to the airport.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the White House physician, said Tuesday that Biden had tested negative for COVID and that he no longer had symptoms.
“The president continues to perform all of his presidential duties,” O’Connor wrote, according to Reuters.
Although Biden has indicated he plans to continue performing his duties while campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris, his anointed successor as the Democratic Party’s candidate, some Republicans say that if Biden is not able to campaign, he should not be in the Oval Office.
Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee said Harris should invoke the 25th Amendment, according to Fox News.
“Whether you were aware of Mr. Biden’s declining health throughout his tenure, the implications of allowing him to remain in his current capacity are extraordinary. Barring Mr. Biden’s own willingness to resign, we urge you to immediately invoke the 25th Amendment and force the issue,” the letter said.
“We are in an unprecedented era in American history – at the behest of senior members of his own party, President Biden presumably approved the release of a statement this past Sunday removing himself from November’s presidential contest,”Ogles continued in the letter.
“The Democrat-led pressure campaign to remove President Biden as the party’s standard bearer, while highlighting the Left’s own dubious commitment to democracy, has left the United States with a powerless, lame duck Commander-in-Chief for the next six months,” Ogles wrote.
Ogles said Biden quit the race “because he isn’t up for the job of president, and everyone in America knows it.”
“I’ve said for over a year that Biden’s ever-declining health has rendered him incapable of leading the nation. With his recent reclusion following a supposed COVID diagnosis, it is now more apparent than ever that he must resign or be forced out,” he said.
“Since Biden has made it clear he will not resign, it is imperative that Vice President Harris move forward with invoking the provisions of the 25th Amendment to remove him forcibly. The safety and well-being of the American people and our nation depend upon it,” Ogles added.
The 25th Amendment provides a process by which the vice president and Cabinet can remove a sitting president and replace the president with the vice president.
