President Joe Biden was absent from the White House Rose Garden Monday for a special occasion of NCAA student–athletes—forced to miss the event due to a root canal and a follow–up procedure.
Enter Vice President Kamala Harris, who stood in for Biden to an appreciative crowd.
“You demonstrate teamwork and character. You make the people around you better in every way,” Harris said.
The 59-year-old Harris read from a teleprompter and smiled while acknowledging the student-athletes who, “Remind us that we are truly stronger together, that our nation is stronger when we stand together, understanding what we have in common”—alluding to the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s ‘stronger together’ campaign slogan of 2016.
Harris brought the Texas Longhorns volleyball national champion, Logan Eggleston, onto the stage with her.
“It is truly so amazing to see so many female athletes supported and recognized here today,” Eggleston said—harnessing the rain that had just started to fall.
“You are leaders, you are role models and of course you are champions. You remind all of us of what we can achieve when we work hard and strive with ambition,” Harris went on to say.
The White House Physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, released a statement Monday morning that Biden, 80, had experienced dental pain the night prior and it was determined he should receive a root canal, which was performed by the team from Walter Reed in the White House Dental Operatory.
“He is experiencing further discomfort this morning, which was anticipated,” wrote O’Connor, “The endodontal specialty team from Walter Reed will complete the president‘s root canal today, at the White House.”
The Rose Garden event is the first of many that will be attended by Biden as he prepares to travel to Philadelphia this weekend for the first political rally of his reelection campaign, galvanizing questions over previous events where he was slipped and whether White House advance professionals were making any necessary changes.
Questions about the president’s health have been raised for some time, due to Biden being the oldest man to ever serve as president.
He previously tripped and fell after delivering the commencement speech at the Air Force Academy in June of 2021.
Following this event, the current administration’s political rival, Former President Donald Trump, took a jab at Biden, saying, “He actually fell down? Well, I hope he wasn’t hurt. You gotta be careful about that.” Trump added, poking fun at himself for a similar incident from his presidency, “even if you have to tip–toe down a ramp.”
White House Physician O’Connor gave Biden a ‘healthy’ and ‘vigorous’ bill of health in February of 2021, but declined to provide the president with a cognitive test.
This has been the call of a few within the current line of GOP hopefuls too, with Presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley opening her 2024 White House bid in February with a call for candidates older than 75 to receive competency tests.
Biden and his office have remained silent on the need for the test, but Harris addressed the role of the White House Physician in a press briefing Monday afternoon:
“In terms of the White House physician, it is his job to make sure the President and Vice President are healthy and ready to do the job and it my understanding he supervises every element of our health.”
