President Joe Biden sparked thousands of comments on social media following a speech Tuesday in Virginia in which he spoke out about the treatment he received from the nurses at Walter Reed Hospital. He was hospitalized there in 1988 for two life-threatening brain aneurysms.
During a health care event, Biden began by praising the nurses who cared for him more than 30 years ago, revealing peculiar, if not grisly, details about his treatment:
I had a nurse named Pearl Nelson, military. She’d come in and do things that I don’t think you learn in nursing school. She’d whisper in my ear. I didn’t — couldn’t understand her, but she’d whisper, and she’d lean down. She’d actually breathe on me to make sure that I was — there was a connection, a human connection.
The president's words did not go unnoticed. Many social media users perceived it as so strange that they wondered about Biden's health status. There were even references to the 25th Amendment, which outlines presidential succession in the event of incapacity.
How does the Cabinet watch this and NOT invoke the 25th Amendment?? https://t.co/BVOoWGNFQf
— Jenna Ellis 🇺🇸 (@JennaEllisEsq) February 28, 2023
It was such a disturbing speech that many wondered if it was a deepfake. Twitter users verified the video, which was first shared by the White House itself. We at Voz Media have shared it below so that you can view it in its entirety.
Is this a deep fake. I have no idea what’s real anymore.
— Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) February 28, 2023
Biden and nurses
This is not the first time the president has told this story, nor is it the first that he has hinted at a particular fondness for nurses. In July 2020, Biden told a similar story about his female caretakers.
.@JoeBiden: "I had nurses at Walter Reed hospital who would bend down and whisper in my ear, go home and get me pillows. They would … actually breathe in my nostrils to make me move, to get me moving.” pic.twitter.com/hxW1UYs7Ba
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 22, 2020
On another occasion, in 2021, Joe Biden said to a long-time nurse that she looked like a college freshman during a videoconference event with health care workers in Arizona. Many saw this intended compliment as creepy and out of line.
BIDEN: "Are you a freshman at the university?"
Nurse: “No."
BIDEN: "I'm teasing... you look like a freshman."
Nurse: "Thank you.”
Later tells Biden she’s been an RN for nine years pic.twitter.com/T1KLChOHXQ
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) February 8, 2021
