A prominent cancer doctor left MSNBC’s Morning Joe crew speechless on Monday with a blunt and alarming assessment of President Joe Biden’s prostate cancer. According to Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, Biden has likely been living with the disease for years—and it should have been caught much earlier.
“This is very surprising,” Emanuel told host Joe Scarborough. “Oh, he’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading.”
Biden’s team confirmed Sunday that the president has an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer. But Emanuel, who once served on Biden’s COVID Advisory Board, said the diagnosis raises serious questions about missed testing—or withheld information.
Scarborough asked directly if it was rare to catch prostate cancer this late, after it had already spread to the bones. Emanuel didn’t hesitate:
“That’s right… It’s a little surprising. I looked back at the records and there’s no evidence… that he had a prostate specific antigen [PSA test].”
The PSA test is standard for catching prostate cancer early, and former Presidents Obama and Bush both had it done. Emanuel admitted it’s possible Biden refused the test, but if that’s the case, it raises even more concerns.
“Many men do decide they don’t want the PSA,” he said. “But this is also aggressive.”
The doctor explained that Biden’s cancer scored a nine on the Gleason scale—a number that signals extreme abnormality and fast growth.
“That’s probably why it’s in the bone. And as you point out, Joe, it’s been around for a very long time in President Biden – years.”
Scarborough pressed further:
“If he has had prostate cancer that has spread to the bone then he most certainly had it when he was president of the United States?”
Emanuel answered without pause:
“Oh yeah. He did not develop it in the last 100 to 200 days. He had it while he was president. He probably had it at the start of his presidency in 2021.”
That revelation landed hard.
Scarborough then asked whether it was routine to screen someone Biden’s age in such a critical role. Emanuel replied that while doctors are cautious about over-testing older men, presidents are a different case.
“It would certainly be discussed… President Obama had this test, President Bush had this test. It is a little surprising that the doctor didn’t take it.”
But the real shock came when Emanuel suggested that if the PSA test was done—and not reported—that would be a major breach of public trust.
“If he took it and didn’t report it and it was elevated, that is another case of doctors not being straightforward with us. We’ve had several of them with President Trump… and if that is true, that would be very troubling.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski tried to find another explanation—maybe the test just didn’t catch it?
“Given the fact that it’s a Gleason 9… It’s not likely that his PSA… would have been in the normal range. It would have been elevated above four. And that does say you should do something about it,” Emanuel replied. “Either they didn’t test for it or they did test for it, they didn’t report it and we didn’t get the information as a public.”
Watch the full interview from MSNBC below.
