Presidential and now personal physicians to Biden, 82, disagree. Republicans like Johnson don’t really care what such doctors say.
“Everybody always asks, ‘Who's running the government?’ I don't know. It’s that cabal of radical leftists that associated with [Barack] Obama, probably as far back as the Clintons,” said Johnson, who rode the hard-right, conspiracy-tinged Tea Party wave into Congress in 2010.
“It’s this group of radical leftists who have had control over the Democrat Party and their policies.”
Biden's diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer was announced Sunday. It came amid frenzied reporting and speculation concerning a book about how Biden aged in office — Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson.
The book claims close aides to Biden, nicknamed “the politburo,” effectively ran the administration.
Spokespeople for Biden have denied he was too old and infirm to govern.
After the cancer diagnosis was announced, a spokesperson for Biden said the former president had never received such a diagnosis before.
Johnson used to chair the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. These days he leads its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. This week, he plans to demand answers from Bidenworld, including a high-profile public hearing or two.
“We're going to be requesting interviews. Let's just leave it at that,” Johnson said. “I don't want to get ahead of myself.”
An official letter could be sent as early as Wednesday, according to Johnson.
“Biden was always their figurehead,” Johnson claimed. “Do you think he ever really functioned as the full president? The guy campaigned from his basement [in 2020, when he beat Donald Trump by more than 7 million votes], and the media covered up for him and Democrat elected officials covered up for him. It's obvious.”
While Johnson is demanding public hearings, he seems to have his own mind made up.
“My main concern about Biden and what happened is just [about] the completely ignoring and covering up his mental decline,” Johnson said. “It was obvious. Pretty early on in his presidency it was pretty obvious that he was unfit, just in terms of mental and physical” capabilities.
Despite such remarks, Johnson also said his heart went out to former President Biden and his family.
“It's unfortunate. There's nothing good about getting old, so I’ll say, President Biden and his family are in my prayers,” Johnson told Raw Story. “It’s not a good sign, what's happening with the cancer.”
