Ageing dictators, we are told, almost always hide the true state of their declining health. Even after their deaths, courtiers jockeying for power may delay releasing the news.
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It seems that such a practice has also been common among US presidents, with Joe Biden being the latest example. This shouldn’t be surprising because US presidential powers in fact resemble those of a dictator, albeit with a term limit of four years – or eight if he or she is elected a second time.
However, Donald Trump has been publicly musing about a third term, prohibited under the 22nd constitutional amendment following Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unprecedented four terms.
The past two weeks have been especially damaging to whatever legacy the Biden family hoped to salvage for the former president.
A new book – Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson – has exposed how the political and media establishment in Washington together covered up Biden’s declining mental health during the last years of his presidency.
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This month, the family released the news that Biden is suffering from an especially aggressive form of prostate cancer. Some medical experts say they must have known about the condition long before, given the unparalleled medical check-ups a US president enjoys, unlike most ordinary Americans.
