Five close friends of former President Joe Biden, including an elected Democrat and two former staff members, have reportedly said he has grown more frail and tired in the last two weeks. The friends expressed concern about the toll that Biden's prostate cancer diagnosis is taking on the 83-year-old.

Biden and his aides insist he is doing well and making progress on projects and public appearances. But the accounts from those closest to him paint a different picture, one that raises familiar questions about transparency and the people who spent years shielding the public from what was plainly visible.

A Diagnosis That Confirmed What Many Suspected

In May, Biden announced that he had been diagnosed with an "aggressive" form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones, carrying a Gleason score of 9. The scores range from 6 to 10. By September, he had several skin cancer lesions surgically removed from his head, The Telegraph reported. His team said on October 11 that he was undergoing radiation therapy.

Biden was pictured later that month ringing a bell to celebrate the completion of that treatment. When he announced his diagnosis, he struck a tone that was personal, if practiced:

"Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places."

No one wishes illness on a former president. Cancer is a brutal opponent, indifferent to politics. The human cost here is real, and Biden's fight with it deserves the basic dignity any person would.

But the medical story cannot be separated from the political one. They are the same story, told in two acts.

The Cover-Up That Wasn't Supposed to Be Called a Cover-Up

Last year, Biden and his team faced accusations of a cover-up during his time in the White House after his mental acuity visibly declined. The evidence was not subtle. In July 2024, Biden referred to Kamala Harris as "vice-president Trump." At a NATO summit, he introduced Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to the stage as "President Putin."

These were not isolated senior moments cherry-picked by hostile media. They were public, repeated, and broadcast live to the world. The debate performance against Donald Trump was so disastrous that Biden abandoned his presidential run entirely.

For months before that, anyone who raised questions about Biden's fitness was accused of trafficking in conspiracy theories or ageism. Media outlets that had spent years assuring the public Biden was sharp behind closed doors suddenly discovered what voters had been saying for over a year. The pivot was seamless. The apologies never came.

Now, friends are quietly telling reporters that he has grown more frail. The pattern is unmistakable:

• Decline happens in private.
• Insiders notice but say nothing publicly.
• The inner circle insists everything is fine.
• Reality eventually forces its way out through anonymous sources.

We have seen this sequence before. We are watching it again.

Harris Says the Quiet Part Out Loud

Kamala Harris, Biden's own vice president, wrote in her memoir that Biden's decision to run for a second term was "reckless." She replaced Biden as the Democrats' 2028 candidate after he dropped out of the race, and she did not mince words about how that came to pass:

"In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn't a choice that should have been left to an individual's ego."

That is a remarkable statement from the person who stood beside him through it all. Harris did not resign. She did not publicly break with Biden when it mattered. She waited until the memoir, six months after he left office, when candor carried no cost, and the book needed a headline.

If the stakes were "simply too high," they were too high while she was vice president, too. Recklessness that you enable is not the recklessness you get to condemn from a book tour.

The Accountability Gap

This is the deeper problem. The Democrat establishment knew. The staff knew. The friends now talking to the Washington Post knew. And for the duration of a presidency, the collective decision was to manage perception rather than address reality.

The question was never whether Biden was declining. The question was always who decided the American public didn't deserve to know, and when they decided it. Those people have names and titles. Most of them still work in Democrat politics. None of them has faced any professional consequence.

What Comes Next

Biden is expected to visit South Carolina this month to deliver remarks at an event marking the sixth anniversary of his victory in that state. In April, he attended the funeral of Pope Francis. In November, he attended the funeral of former Vice President Dick Cheney. The public appearances continue, and his team continues to insist he is doing well.

Maybe he is. Cancer treatment at 83 is grueling, and good days follow bad ones. But the credibility of the people making those assurances was spent a long time ago. They told us he was sharp. They told us the debate was a bad night. They told us questioning his fitness was a right-wing talking point.

Five of his closest friends are now saying otherwise, and they're saying it anonymously, because that is the only way anything true ever seems to exit Biden's inner circle.

The pattern holds. It always holds.