A sailor in the U.S. Navy has been reportedly disciplined for allegedly trying to access the medical records of President Joe Biden. The sailor made three failed attempts to access the records back in February and was only discovered after a coworker reported the incidents.
The sailor, whose name hasn’t been released, works at the Navy’s hospital corps at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, according to CBS News, and attempted to look through President Biden’s records by conducting a search of the Genesis Medical Health System, the U.S. military’s electronic health records database. CBS News reports three attempts were made but quotes an anonymous official as saying, “he did not pull up the right Joe Biden.”
The president’s medical records are restricted in such a way that it would be difficult for a junior sailor to ever access them, according to CBS News. The sailor’s motive for looking up the records isn’t clear, but he apparently did it “out of curiosity,” according to a probe. The sailor was disciplined administratively, though details haven’t been released on that either.
Biden’s health has come under increased scrutiny in the past two weeks after a poor debate performance against convicted felon Donald Trump. The president struggled at times to complete sentences and uttered the nonsensical “We finally beat Medicare” in the most infamous flub of the night. The fallout from the debate prompted some of Biden’s most ardent supporters to question whether he’s in a position to beat Trump in November’s election, especially since Biden has been trailing in the polls ever since late 2023. Some have suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris become the new presidential nominee.
But Biden has pledged to stay in the race and there’s not much that can be done by anybody to change that if he doesn’t step aside willingly. The president has enough delegates pledged for the upcoming convention in Chicago to officially secure the nomination and most Democrats appear increasingly resigned to the fact that Biden will be the nominee no matter what. The president is currently sitting at 39.9% in FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average with Trump at 42.1% and Independent nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at 9.5%.
Trump also has an edge in most of the half-dozen battleground states being closely watched and is even polling relatively well in traditionally Democratic states like Minnesota, which currently has the longest streak of any state not voting for a Republican president. Minnesota hasn’t gone Republican since 1972 but FiveThirtyEight’s polling average for the state currently has Biden at 41.6%, Trump at 40.5%, and Kennedy at 8.7%.
One anonymous Democratic Caucus attendee told Semafor political reporter Kadia Goba on Tuesday that the morale of the caucus is at historic lows. Goba reportedly asked if they’d compare it to a funeral, as others had previously. The reply, according to Goba: “That is an insult to funerals.”
