Joe Biden supporters have branded CNN analyst Brian Stelter a ‘disgrace’ and ‘vile human’ after he claimed that the revelation about the former president’s prostate cancer diagnosis was conveniently-timed.
Stelter criticized Biden for waiting to publicly announce his health crisis until Sunday, even though he received the diagnosis on Friday.
The CNN personality alleged the Biden camp chose to disclose his diagnosis in wake of the newly released audio recordings of Biden speaking to special counsel Robert Hur in 2023, which laid bare his declining memory lapses.
‘The timing is just extraordinary,’ Stelter said Sunday on CNN. ‘We know from the statement from his personal spokesman that Biden learned of the diagnosis on Friday.
‘Well, what was the biggest Biden story on Friday? It was the release of those audio excerpts from his conversations with Robert Hur back in 2023.’
He also pointed the pending release of a book by his colleague Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson that features accounts of Biden’s mental and physical decline, as well as alleged attempts to cover up is ailing health.
Social media users were quick to attack Stelter for his ‘insinuations’, calling him a ‘coward’ and ‘soulless ghoul’ for trashing the Biden family during this difficult time.
‘A human being reveals just how foul he is by suggesting that a fellow human’s stage 4 aggressive cancer diagnosis is fake,’ one X user wrote, while another questioned: ‘What the f*** is wrong with you? This is sickening.’
Biden, 82, was diagnosed with an ‘aggressive form’ of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. He received the diagnosis on Friday after experiencing urinary symptoms, and he and his family are reviewing treatment options with doctors.
‘On the day that story was breaking, Biden was facing this personal news,’ Stelter said during Sunday’s broadcast, referencing the bombshell audio clips.
The clips featured excerpts from Biden’s conversations with Hurr that ‘Axios obtained almost certainly from the Trump Administration’, he said.
Stelter pointed out how the audio showed ‘memory lapses’ and claimed that many people have said the clips were ‘hard to hear, even excruciating to hear’.
He claimed Biden was ‘showing his age on those audio tapes that had never been heard by the public before’.
‘So you have that as one element of the timing here,’ he continued.
‘And then you have … this book coming out, one of the biggest political books in several years,’ Stelter added, referencing Tapper and Thompson’s upcoming book Original Sin, which is scheduled to hit shelves this week.
Skepticism has emerged over the timeline of Biden’s diagnosis, with some medical experts claiming that he likely knew about his cancer much sooner than is being portrayed – especially considering its advanced stage just over a year after his last presidential physical.
But regardless, Stelter’s commentary has infuriated the American public, who seemingly think the allegations were inappropriate.
‘You sir should be ashamed of yourself. Instead of empathy, dignity and compassion you’ve demonstrated your ignorance,’ one X user posted.
The user also criticized Stelter for turning off his replies on the his ‘outrageous statement’ about Biden.
Stelter’s commentary has infuriated the American public, who have branded him a ‘disgrace’ and ‘vile human’
‘Coward. No responses allowed. You are a disgrace to journalism,’ echoed another. ‘You have a privilege you squander and a responsibility you laugh at.
‘What’s extraordinary is you see nothing wrong with what you wrote and don’t care. You are an extraordinary a**.’
One added: ‘This is really gross, Brian.’
And another echoed: ‘When I call members of the media “soulless ghouls” this is what I am talking about. What kind of awful human being would suggest Biden timed the announcement of his cancer diagnosis to take attention away from a selectively leaked audio clip. Stelter is a despicable POS.’
‘Brian Stelter is a vile human,’ added another angry user.
Audio was published Friday from portions of interviews Biden gave to federal prosecutors in 2023, the latest in a stream of reports putting questions about Biden’s health back in the spotlight
A then-80-year old Biden fails to recall when his son Beau passed away and even when he left office as vice president under Barack Obama in an interview recorded seven months before the debate disaster against Donald Trump that effectively ended his re-election run.
Hur asserted during the investigation over the mishandling of classified evidence that jurors would see the president as ‘a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’
The audio shows Biden – who has long had a stutter – slurring his words, losing his thought process and not being able to recall important facts about his own life.
At one point, he can even be heard asking: ‘Am I making any sense to you?’
Hur was appointed special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland in January 2022 to investigate the president’s handling of classified files based on a range of areas including Afghanistan.
The Biden administration had already released transcripts of the interviews taking place on October 8 and October 9, 2023 had already revealed that Biden’s lawyer had to tell him what year his son Beau died of brain cancer and the president joked about the special counsel finding pictures of his wife in a swimsuit.
‘What was happening though was… What month did Beau die?’ Biden mused at one point, adding, ‘Oh God, May 30th.’
A White House lawyer then chimed in with the year, 2015.
‘Was it 2015 he died?’ Biden asked.
He leads into the confusion by suggesting Beau died in either 2017 or 2018, or even earlier than that, as he’s discussing his 2008 presidential run.
Biden asks Hur: ‘This is what, 2017, 18, in that area?’
When Hur affirms, Biden says: ‘Remember, in this time frame, my son is … uh … would’ve been deployed or is dying and so … it was … and by the way there were still a lot of people at the time, when I got out of the Senate, that were encouraging me to run in this period – except the president.’
Beau deployed between 2008 and 2009, at the beginning of Biden’s first term as vice president.
Biden issued a statement on X early Monday morning, confirming his prostate cancer diagnosis.
‘Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support,’ he wrote.
Cancers that have spread, or metastasized, are considered Stage 4, the most advanced. Most prostate cancers are detected at an earlier stage.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the 236,659 cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in 2021, 70 per cent were diagnosed before the cancer had spread beyond the prostate. About 8 per cent of new prostate cancer diagnoses that year involved advanced-stage disease.
‘While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,’ Biden’s office said on Sunday.
Biden’s physical health and mental acuity drew scrutiny during his 2021-2025 presidency. He abruptly ended his bid for reelection last July, weeks after a halting performance during a debate against Republican Donald Trump prompted panic among his fellow Democrats.
President Trump, who has repeatedly berated Biden since taking office in January, expressed sympathy on Sunday for Biden and his wife, Jill, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
‘Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,’ he wrote. ‘We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.’
Biden’s office said the cancer scored a nine out of 10 on the Gleason score grading system, which is used to help determine the aggressiveness of prostate cancer.
Biden was the oldest person to win the US presidency at the time of his election in 2020. Trump, 78, broke that record when he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris last year.
Some prominent Democrats have recently acknowledged that it was an error to advance Biden as the 2024 nominee, given widespread concerns among voters about his age.
Long before the debate last summer, polls showed a majority of Americans, including most Democrats, believed Biden was too old to serve a second term.
‘It was a mistake for Democrats to not listen to the voters earlier,’ Democratic US Senator Chris Murphy told NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday morning, before Biden’s diagnosis was announced.
Biden has kept a low profile since leaving office, making only a handful of public appearances, including an April speech in which he defended the Social Security Administration against Trump’s planned cuts.
He has also defended his legacy in interviews and rejected reporting in two new books that he suffered from cognitive decline during his last year in office.
‘They are wrong,’ he said earlier this month on ABC’s ‘The View,’ referring to the books’ authors.
Biden’s diagnosis triggered an outpouring of supportive statements on Sunday from Democrats and Republicans alike.
‘Joe is a fighter – and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership,’ Harris said in a statement.
Biden lost a son, Beau Biden, in 2015 due to brain cancer.
In 2022, Biden revived an Obama-era program known as Cancer Moonshot, seeking to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50 per cent over the next 25 years.