President Joe Biden will switch energy briefly to Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday whereas he’s beneath anaesthesia for a routine colonoscopy, making her the primary lady to carry presidential energy in US historical past.
Biden is present process his annual bodily on the Walter Reed navy hospital exterior of Washington. Harris is the primary lady to function vice chairman of the United States; no lady has ever been president within the nation’s practically 250-year historical past.
“Following the process set out in the Constitution, President Biden will transfer power to the Vice President for the brief period of time when he is under anaesthesia,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki stated in a press release.
“The Vice President will work from her office in the West Wing during this time,” Psaki stated.
Presidential energy has been transferred to the vice chairman earlier than, when President George W. Bush had colonoscopies in 2002 and 2007.
Biden, who turns 79 on Saturday, is the oldest individual to take workplace as US president. Although hypothesis has endured about whether or not he’ll run for re-election in 2024, he has stated he expects to hunt a second four-year time period alongside Harris.
Biden has pledged to be extra clear about his well being than predecessor Donald Trump. The Republican visited Walter Reed in 2019 for an undisclosed purpose {that a} former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, later revealed was for a colonoscopy.
