Biden-weary Americans say presidents shouldn’t be allowed to hide health records: poll

Most U.S. adults want to require presidents to disclose medical records after former President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race over his apparent cognitive decline, a new poll shows.

Seventy-four percent of Americans and majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents believe releasing health information should be legally required for presidents, according to an Axios/Ipsos survey released Friday. The poll aligns with others as early as 2021 that indicated the voting public had widespread doubt about his physical and mental acuity, which led White House aides to try to conceal his condition from public view.

A stronger majority of U.S. adults surveyed in the poll — 81% — said presidents should be legally required to undergo disease screenings and cognitive tests and share the results publicly.

Biden’s personal office announced in May that the former president had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Doctors and cancer experts told the Daily Caller said the announcement indicated that Biden likely had the cancer in secret throughout his presidency.

Concerns about gaffe- and stutter-prone Biden came to a head in June 2024, when he struggled to form coherent sentences during a televised debate with President Donald Trump. Biden eventually granted the wishes of others in his party in July 2024 by dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing former Vice President Kamala Harris.

In the waning months of his term, White House aides took on more of Biden’s daily responsibilities, increasingly insulating him from the public. Staffers had to give the president “basic instructions” for things like exiting a stage at an event, The Wall Street Journal reported.

CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson reported in a book released in May that Biden’s aides even considered putting him in a wheelchair due to his declining condition. Journalists Amie Parnes and Jonathan Allen wrote in their own book on the 2024 campaign that Biden’s allies were even preparing for his possible death ahead of the 2024 election.

President Donald Trump, 79, was found to be in “excellent cognitive and physical health,” according to an April memo from a White House physician. The memo said Trump scored 30 out of 30 on a cognitive test.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

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