US President Donald Trump on Monday fuelled speculation that Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis was “covered up,” saying he was “surprised” the public was not told about his predecessor’s condition earlier.Also Read | ‘Crime against the republic’: Ex-Obama adviser slams Joe Biden aides for ‘massive cover-up’ of cancer diagnosis
“I’m surprised that the public wasn’t notified a long time ago,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked for his reaction to Biden’s cancer.“It takes a long time to get to that situation, to get to a stage nine,” he added, apparently referring to the announcement by the ex-US president’s office that the Democrat’s cancer had “a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5).”Prostate cancer which looks “very abnormal” is assigned the highest rating, Grade 5, according to the American Cancer Society. The Gleason Score goes up to 10, indicating the seriousness of Biden’s disease.Meanwhile, Trump further suggested that Biden’s tests, when the latter was in office, “should have picked up” the signs of the disease.
“If you take a look it’s the same doctor that said Joe was cognitively fine. There are things going on that the public wasn’t informed of,” he stated.Also Read | Urologist says Biden may have known about his prostate cancer when he ran for president in 2020The Republican’s extraordinary claim came just a day after he expressed “sadness” after it emerged that his bitter Democratic political rival had an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer.Not the only oneEarlier, Trump’s son Donald Trump Junior and US Vice President JD Vance, too, alleged Biden’s cancer diagnosis was “covered up.”Trump Junior posted a clip of Biden, whose son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015, saying in an apparent gaffe in 2022 that “I, and so damn many other people I grew up with, have cancer.”Also Read | ‘I’m well aware Jill Biden is a fake doctor’: Donald Trump Jr says his Biden cancer jibe was a jokeVance meanwhile said that “we really do need to be honest” about Biden’s fitness.The former president’s team has consistently denied there was any effort to hide fears about his health.(With AFP inputs)