GOP congressman accuses Biden of having had ‘so much plastic surgery’

Rep Greg Murphy of North Carolina was speaking about the president’s upcoming re-election bid on Fox News

Rep Greg Murphy of North Carolina has accused President Joe Biden of having had “so much plastic surgery” during an appearance on Fox News on Wednesday morning.

Mr Murphy, a Republican, used to serve as an affiliate professor of surgery and chief of the division of urology at the East Carolina University School of Medicine before his election to the US House. In an interview with Maria Bartiromo, he called on his medical background to suggest that Mr Biden is becoming unfit to serve.

“Let’s look at Joe,” Mr Murphy said. “He’s had so much plastic surgery, so much botox, so much filler — that’s on the outside. And Maria, I deal in a surgical field that has a lot of older patients, and so I have seen patients through the year decline mentally — it’s just a fact, it’s what happens.”

Mr Biden is currently the oldest serving president in American history at 80, and would be 86 by the time his second term ended.

A majority of Americans say they are concerned about Mr Biden’s age and fitness for office, with some Republicans like Mr Murphy going so far as to suggest that the president is suffering from dementia by citing a recent Axios story on his allegedly bad temper.

“The fact that he’s having these labile emotional swings, outbursts to his staff, really speaks — a form of dementia has that,” Mr Murphy said. “You can’t control your emotions.”

The irony is that Axios reported that some Biden staffers believe the president should more readily display his temper publicly to assuage voters’ concerns about his mental capacity and level of engagement with the job. In any case, Mr Murphy’s allegation that Mr Biden has a significantly reduced mental capacity may be politically motiviated. Later in his interview with Bartiromo, Mr Murphy said that Mr Biden “never was fit” to serve as president.

“Let’s just be honest: the guy is not fit for office, he never was fit for office, and he surely would not be fit for another five years,” Mr Murphy said.

Mr Murphy’s allegation that Mr Biden has had plastic surgery may have more substantial backing. A number of plastic surgeons have speculated that the president has undergone a variety of cosmetic procedures including a facelift, hair plugs, botox injections, and more since the 2008 presidential campaign.

Mr Biden himself has never confirmed those rumours, though it is not at all uncommon for major politicians to undergo cosmetic surgery. Other world leaders from Brazil’s Dilma Rouseff to Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi had plastic surgery during their careers, and there has been reporting on Donald Trump’s possible plastic surgery ventures as well.