Morning Brief: Biden’s Cancer Bombshell & Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

Former President Joe Biden’s cancer announcement prompts questions about an even deeper health cover-up. And, President Donald Trump’s budget bill clears another hurdle – but will it lead to unsustainable debt? It’s Tuesday, May 20, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.

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Biden’s Prostate Cancer, Health Problems & Possible Cover-Up

Topline: As we learn more details of Joe Biden’s cancer prognosis, there are growing questions about whether the former president was diagnosed while in office, and if the news was kept from the American people.

The country and Capitol Hill are still reeling from the news that Biden has stage 4 cancer — news that’s come amid new evidence of the cover-up of the former president’s mental decline. Putting political differences aside, President Trump said in a statement that he and first lady Melania are saddened to hear about the diagnosis and, “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”

The more we learn about the former president’s prognosis, the more concerning it appears. Prostate cancer is typically among the most treatable forms of cancer when caught early, but in Biden’s case, it’s metastasized — or spread — to his bones. Doctors say that makes it nearly impossible to treat. Every case is different, but the five-year survival rate for prostate cancer patients deemed metastatic is just 28%. The severity of a prostate cancer diagnosis is graded on the Gleason scale of 6 to 10, and Biden is at a Gleason Scale 9, meaning his cancer is very aggressive and likely to spread further.

The former president issued his first public statement since his diagnosis was publicly announced on Monday, saying, “Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”

A stage 4 cancer diagnosis is a touchy subject, but when the patient is the former president, there’s good reason to ask questions. It’s very unusual for prostate cancer to have already metastasized by the time of diagnosis — that’s only the case for about one in twenty prostate cancer patients. Presidents have access to the best health care on earth and have regular checkups — medical experts say it would’ve been nearly impossible for a cancer this advanced to have only been noticed last week. If Biden and his team knew he had this serious, potentially fatal illness last year, and ran a re-election campaign without telling anyone, it would be among the biggest political scandals in American history. Steven Quay, former faculty member at Stanford’s Pathology Department, put it bluntly, saying, “It is highly likely he was carrying a diagnosis of prostate cancer throughout his White House tenure and the American people were uninformed.”

“Most likely he had prostate cancer for a long time,” Dr. David Shusterman, a renowned urologist, told NewsNation. “Aggressive prostate cancer such as this at age 80 grows over a long period of time. I mean usually it takes 5-10 years. … There’s definitely evidence that he probably knew about this for a while.”

The timing of this announcement has also cast doubt on the veracity of the official timeline. The cancer announcement came just two days after audio recordings of his interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur were released, and just a day and a half before a highly anticipated book documenting his physical and cognitive decline was set to be published. Skeptics say that the timing is no coincidence and was meant to deflect questions about a potential White House cover-up regarding his mental decline while in office.

David Axelrod, a political consultant and former advisor to the Obama administration, called for restraint on criticism of Biden and his inner circle in the wake of the diagnosis, telling CNN that “those conversations should be more muted and set aside for now.”

Donald Trump Jr. told The Daily Wire that the announcement timing is suspicious. “The fact that it breaks this week that he has it and we are told we’re not allowed to talk about anything Joe Biden right now because that would be uncouth screams to me to be an additional part of this cover-up.”

Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful’ Budget Bill Leaves Committee Amid Intense Debt Debate

Topline: In a rare Sunday vote, Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” cleared a key procedural hurdle – despite grave concerns about national debt from within the GOP.

After President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” failed to pass through the House Budget Committee last week, several concessions were made to more conservative members of the House Republican Caucus to garner their support. The newest version of the bill features more cuts to green energy and will impose Medicaid work requirements for able-bodied recipients more quickly – under the earlier framework, those work requirements wouldn’t kick in until 2029. It was only after those promises were made that Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and three other conservatives decided to vote “present” so the bill could pass out of committee in a 17-16 party-line vote.

But even with those promises, the bill’s future is still in limbo. Roy said on X that “the bill does not yet meet the moment.” Of course, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has to walk an ideological tightrope to get any legislation passed with a razor-thin Republican majority – more cuts run the risk of angering moderates over too many conservative reforms.

Context: The United States is nearly $37 trillion in debt with no realistic plan to begin to pay it off. Through April of this year, interest payments on the national debt made up about 16% of all federal spending, and that percentage is almost certain to increase over the next few years. Moody’s dropped the U.S. credit rating on Friday from the highest possible AAA to AA1, citing the ever-growing federal deficit to explain its decision. That sent yields on 10 and 30-year bonds up, and, over time, it could push the cost of borrowing up – that means higher rates for auto loans, home loans, and even credit cards. 

“The debt is a long term train wreck waiting to happen,” Jason Katz, managing director and senior portfolio manager at UBS, a Swiss investment bank, told Fox Business. “In the short term, however, we have this sugar high and, hopefully, we can grow our way out of this issue through a larger tax base earning more money.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to Moody’s credit downgrade on Monday, painting a rosier picture of America’s economic prospects. “We have seen trillions of dollars of investments flowing into our economy since the president took office,” Leavitt said. “People around the world have confidence in the United States of America. And if you also just look at the raw economic data that we’re seeing last week when we were out of town, inflation dropped once again. Oil prices are dropping, gas prices are dropping. The president has added nearly 5 million jobs to the American economy already, so there’s a lot of optimism in this economy.”