President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID.
The 81-year-old president was forced to cancel a speech in Las Vegas during a campaign trip after a test left him with a runny nose and cough.
As he slowly boarded Air Force One, maskless, for the flight back to the East Coast to isolate, he gave a thumbs up and said, “I feel good.”
The White House physician said Biden was feeling “generally unwell” and is now self-isolating in Delaware.
The West Wing reported that the president has been vaccinated and given a booster, and that he took a dose of Paxlovid on Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier on Wednesday, he spoke to supporters at a restaurant as Democrats renewed calls for him to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
In an interview this week, he said he would only quit if doctors told him to and if he had a medical exam showing it was necessary.
“If I had a medical condition and doctors came to me and said, I have this problem and I have that problem,” Biden said in an interview with BET News.
President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID and has been forced to cancel a campaign speech in Las Vegas. He is pictured greeting a supporter at a Mexican restaurant on Wednesday
The president’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, has said Biden is mentally and physically fit to serve as commander in chief.
But Democrats have questioned Biden’s fitness for president since his performance in the debate against Donald Trump, in which he fumbled for words and at times stared blankly into the camera.
Biden has meanwhile repeatedly changed the terms under which he would have to leave office.
He told ABC News he would only drop out if the “Lord Almighty” told him to. At a news conference in Washington, D.C., he said he would stay in the race unless his aides came to prove to him that he could never win.
As he boarded Air Force One without a mask for the flight back to the East Coast to isolate, he gave a thumbs up and said, “I’m good.”
The 81-year-old president was forced to cancel an appearance during a campaign trip after taking a test that left him with a runny nose and cough
Biden takes a selfie with a supporter at the restaurant, just hours before he tested positive for COVID
In his interview with BET’s Ed Gordon, Biden said for the first time that he expected to give up the presidency after one term and hand it over to someone else. However, he decided to run for re-election because he believed his “wisdom” and experience would help heal the country.
“You may remember, Ed, I said I was going to be a transition candidate, and I thought I could put this behind me and hand it off to someone else,” Biden said. “But I didn’t expect things to be this, this, this divisive. And I think, frankly, the only thing that age brings is a little bit of wisdom.”
He added that “there is much more to do, and I don’t want to give up that work just like that.”
Janet Murguía, CEO of the Latin American civil rights organization UnidosUS, said: “Thank you very much for your patience and understanding. Unfortunately, I just had a phone call with President Biden.
“And he shared his deep disappointment that he couldn’t be there this afternoon. The president has been to many events, as we all know, and he just tested positive for COVID. So of course we understand that he has to take the recommended precautions and he obviously didn’t want to put anyone at risk.