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Several social media users are claiming that US President Joe Biden’s recent physical fitness test results revealed that 80-year-old did “36 push-ups, 11 pull-ups and ran a mile in under 5 minutes”, evoking reactions of surprise.
The archived versions of the tweets can be seen here and here.
Why the clamour over Biden’s fitness?
Biden’s health has come under scrutiny because at age 80, he is the oldest president in US history and if he decides to run for a second term in 2024, as widely expected, he would be 86 at the end of his time at the White House. Democrats have reportedly expressed concern behind the scenes regarding his age and his fitness for office, while Republicans – including President Barack Obama’s former doctor – demand the president also be administered a cognitive exam.
Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley recently took swipes at the nation’s ageing leaders, including Biden and former president Donald Trump, as she called for term limits and ‘mandatory mental competency tests’ for politicians over the age of 75.
Newschecker first looked at the viral claim, which read, “President Biden did 36 push-ups, 11 pull-ups (not the type he wears) and ran a mile in just under 5 minutes according to the results of his physical fitness test,” indicating that it was likely meant as humour.
When we ran a Twitter search using the keywords “Biden push-ups”, we saw that the earliest instance of this claim was on February 17, 2023, tweeted by @MarcusGAnthony. While looking up his Twitter bio, we saw that he described himself as a “political jokester”. A look through his tweets showed that he has put out several posts, poking fun at politicians, indicating that it was a satire account.
Taking a cue from this, we ran a keyword search for “Biden physical fitness test”, which led us to multiple news reports,declaring Biden as healthy and “fit for duty”, seen here, here and here. A CNBC report, dated February 16, 2023, stated, “President Biden remains a healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, according to a five-page memo by White House physician Kevin O’Connor.”
None of these reports mentioned the physical feats as stated in the viral claim. “Biden does not drink alcohol or smoke tobacco and works out five times a week, the physical noted,” as per a Reuters report.
We then looked up the White House document on “President Biden’s current health summary”, dated February 16, 2023, from Kevin C O’Connor, physician to the president.
“The president remains fit for duty, and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations,” O’Connor said in a summary of the health exam, which declared him free of symptoms of long Covid-19 after his bout last year with the virus, while also describing other minor health issues. There was no record of Biden doing 36 push-ups, 11 pull-ups and running a mile in just under 5 minutes, confirming that the viral claim was meant as satire.
US President Joe Biden did not do 36 push-ups, 11 pull-ups and ran a mile in under 5 minutes for a fitness test. Viral post on physical test results found to be satire.
Sources
CNBC news report, February 16, 2023
White House health summary, February 16, 2023
Twitter bio of @MarcusGAnthony
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