In a comment reminiscent of his desire to take his opponent “out behind the gym” to fight him, former President Joe Biden, 82, said Friday he could “beat the hell out of both of them” – an apparent reference to the authors of a new book detailing his cognitive decline as leader of the free world.
The book covering Biden’s mental deterioration while president, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, was released May 20.
Biden’s quip came amid his first public remarks since announcing he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, Fox News reported.
“You can see that I’m mentally incompetent, I can’t walk,” Biden joked with reporters Friday after speaking at a Memorial Day event in Delaware. “And I could beat the hell out of both of them.”
Biden’s team has pushed back on the material included in the new book.
“There is nothing in this book that shows Joe Biden failed to do his job, as the authors have alleged, nor did they prove their allegation that there was a cover up or conspiracy,” a Biden spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Nowhere do they show that our national security was threatened or where the President wasn’t otherwise engaged in the important matters of the Presidency. In fact, Joe Biden was an effective President who led our country with empathy and skill.”
In addition to the publication of multiple books this year chronicling the deterioration of Biden’s mental faculties, leaked audio recordings of Biden’s October 2023 interview with former Special Counsel Robert Hur were released this mnth, showing that Biden struggled with his words and even appeared to forget the year his son died.
Biden told reporters Friday that he is “optimistic” about his cancer diagnosis and is currently receiving treatment in the form of a pill.
“My expectation is we’re going to be able to beat this,” Biden said.
Campaigning for fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2026, Biden said of Donald Trump: “I wish we were in high school and I could take him behind the gym.”
Watch Biden’s recent comments in Delaware: