Joe Biden will transfer power to Kamala Harris on Friday while he is under anesthesia for a colonoscopy he will undergo.
QUICK FACTS:
- “The Vice President will work from her office in the West Wing during this time,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement, Reuters reports.
- The transfer of power adheres to the process laid out in the Constitution, Psaki said.
- Biden will get the procedure done at Walter Reed Medical Center, according to The Hill.
- The White House will release a summary of the results of Biden’s physical later Friday, Psaki said.
BACKGROUND:
- Presidential power has been transferred to the vice president before, when President George W. Bush had colonoscopies in 2002 and 2007, notes Reuters.
- Biden, the oldest person to take office as president in U.S. history, turns 79 on Saturday.
- Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham alleged that then-President Trump would not go under anesthesia for a colonoscopy when he was abruptly taken to Walter Reed in 2019 because he didn’t want to transfer power to his vice president, Mike Pence, notes The Hill.
