President Joe Biden will this Friday temporarily transfer power to Vice President Kamala Harris while he undergoes medical procedure.
Biden will be under anesthesia for a routine colonoscopy, according to White House press secretary, Jen Psaki.
“The Vice President will work from her office in the West Wing during this time,” Psaki told reporters in a statement.
Biden was at Walter Reed Medical Center Friday morning to undergo a routine annual medical procedure — his first physical in office as the oldest first-term president in US history.
US constitution states that a vice president assumes presidential powers while the president undergoes a medical procedure that requires anesthesia.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney did so on multiple occasions when ex-President George W. Bush underwent routine colonoscopies.
Recall that former President Donald Trump’s ex-press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, had earlier this year heavily implied that Trump underwent a colonoscopy in a secret visit to Walter Reed in 2019, but kept it secret to avoid transferring presidential power to his vice, Mike Pence.
Although in her book, “I’ll Take Your Questions Now,” Grisham did not use the term colonoscopy, however, she heavily implied that was what Trump’s trip to Walter Reed in 2019 was for.
According to her, Trump’s hospital visit, which stirred weeks-long speculation about his health, was a “very common procedure,” during which “a patient is put under.”
She also writes that Bush had a similar procedure while in office.
Grisham said Trump did not want then-Vice President Mike Pence to be in power while he was sedated, which was part of the reason he kept his visit private. He also “did not want to be the butt of a joke” on late-night television, writes Grisham