Greg Murphy Says 'Hard To Believe' White House Doc Didn't Conduct Cancer Test For Biden

Forbes Breaking News

Congressman Greg Murphy (R-NC), a board certified urologist, joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss President Joe Biden's prostate cancer diagnosis.

Transcript

00:00Hi everybody, I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now is

00:07Congressman Greg Murphy. Congressman, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me.

00:12Congressman, I'm really grateful for your medical expertise today because President Biden announced

00:16over the weekend that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and I would love to get your

00:20perspective as urologist who has treated prostate cancer patients before and for decades in the past.

00:26I want to read some details from the statement announcing the diagnosis. First, they said that

00:31the cancer is characterized by a Gleason score of 9, grade group 5. They also said that it has

00:37metastasized to the bone. They said it's a more aggressive type of the disease, but it appears

00:41to be hormone sensitive. So first, to start off the conversation, can you break down this statement

00:47in layman's terms? What exactly does this diagnosis mean? Yeah, so Brittany, prostate cancer is a very

00:54common diagnosis in men, especially older men. In fact, one in eight will be diagnosed with prostate

00:59cancer in their lifetime. The good news is that most men don't die with prostate cancer. And so

01:05what's happened with his specific diagnosis is that it has been determined that the cancer of origin

01:11was from the prostate gland and that the prostate cancer has then spread to the bone. That's a very

01:16common thing. If cancer comes from the prostate, it's going to spread anywhere. It will go to the bone.

01:22How this all happened, I think there's a lot of conjecture. Diagnosis of prostate cancer,

01:28the suspicion comes from a blood test called PSA, which stands for prostate-specific antigen,

01:34which is a chemical that is made in normal prostate cells. They're normal levels, they're

01:39abnormal levels. And generally with prostate cancer itself, the level is abnormal because the prostate

01:44cancer cells, while they are originally prostate cells, tend to leak this chemical. So that causes the

01:51blood level to rise. The other part, which is critical, is the physical examination and doing

01:56a prostate examination, a rectal examination, to make sure that you don't have any abnormalities.

02:01If you're able to detect cancer early, it's usually on the basis that the PSA is elevated with a normal

02:08prostate examination. Reports are that the president was having symptoms, and generally symptoms either

02:14can be difficulty urinating blood in the urine or possibly bone pain. And this led the physician to

02:20check a PSA, to check a prostate examination, and by report, he found a nodule. And I guess that's where

02:27they did then a biopsy to get tissue to look at under the microscope to determine whether it's,

02:33whether something was wrong, whether it was cancer within the prostate itself. And then after that was

02:38determined to do a radiographic x-ray analysis to see what stage the prostate was in, I mean,

02:44the prostate cancer was in. There was a doctor on MSNBC yesterday, I'm warning Joe, Dr. Ezekiel

02:51Emanuel. And he said that based on what he saw, based on what he believed here from what President

02:57Biden's statement said, is that President Biden could have had cancer while he was in office.

03:03Is that what you think? I mean, could that have been the case here? And how would that not have been

03:07detected? It definitely was the case because this cancer didn't just pop up since January of this

03:14past year. You know, we see a lot of patients with kidney cancers and they, we find them because

03:19somebody came into the emergency department, maybe with a appendiceal pain or something, and a CT scan

03:24shows maybe a large mass in the kidney. Well, that mass just didn't appear overnight. The cancer grows

03:29slowly. But if you're not looking to detect it, you won't know that it's there. It could have very well

03:33been there for five or eight years, but it would not have spread at that point in time. And so,

03:39you know, this goes back to one of the issues, something called screening, PSA screening. There's

03:44been a lot of debate about whether you should screen or not screen for prostate cancer. I'm very much a

03:48pro screener because I've seen so many men that I've diagnosed that I've treated, done surgery or

03:53whatever on and hopefully save their lives. But apparently, and this is just by a report that the

03:59White House didn't feel a screening for prostate cancer was necessary. I don't normally do it in

04:05individuals starting over 75-year-olds unless there are symptoms because generally their life

04:10expectancy may not be 10 years. That's where we look for a screening benefit. But in someone who's

04:15the president of the United States and, you know, looking to another four years of serving this country,

04:20I find it very hard to believe that the physician or the White House did not direct not only a blood

04:27test, a PSA test, which needs to be done in elderly men if they're going to live 10 years,

04:33as well as a rectal examination. So this is where it was found. But the cancer was there. It may just,

04:38it was not probably, probably not diagnosed. You tweeted about the PSA. You said, yes, I don't

04:46normally screen for prostate cancer after 75, but not checking a PSA on someone running for the highest

04:51office in the land is a complete travesty, medical and professional malpractice.

04:56What went wrong here then, do you think, that this is medical and professional malpractice?

05:02Well, medical and professional being two different things. Number one is, again,

05:07an 82-year-old without, in the absence of symptoms, either being difficult urinating or bone pain,

05:13you really wouldn't normally check a PSA. But in the framework that somebody is running for the

05:18presidency of the United States, when you're trying to show the nation that he is fit and able to do his

05:23job, especially in the light of this whole controversy of his cognitive decline, I think

05:29it was imperative that physician recommended that test be ordered. Now, remember, we as physicians

05:34can't tell or shouldn't be telling patients what to do. We can recommend this blood test. We can

05:39recommend a rectal examination. Did he do that? Did that physician do that? Or did maybe President

05:45Biden decline it and say, no, I don't need that? I think those are questions. I can't answer those.

05:51I wasn't in the room when he was, when the, when the doctor was talking with the president at the

05:55time, former president. So really knowing those, those answers really is going to be key to really

06:01figuring out, was this really the right thing that happened? I want to talk about the timing of this

06:07because that has been a question over the past 48 hours since the diagnosis came to light. The news

06:12has come when the audio of the HerTapes has come out. Also, explosive reporting on President Biden's

06:18mental acuity while he was in office is making headlines. David Axelrod said that conversations

06:23regarding President Biden's cognitive abilities and mental acuity while he was in office should

06:28be set aside for now in light of this diagnosis. What's your reaction to that argument?

06:33I think that's ridiculous. I mean, this, us not talking, us talking about or not talking about

06:39isn't going to change anything about the way the former president's being treated.

06:43Look, this is a medical diagnosis. He's going to be, I'm assuming former President Biden's going to

06:49be talking with oncology doctors or his urologist, one for that matter. Apparently he's already started

06:54some hormone shots, which are help relieve the body of the male body of testosterone. Once

07:01testosterone is gone, a lot of cancer cells need that to survive and they just die. And so, you know,

07:07his treatment's not going to be changed about this, but what goes back is to the relevance is

07:13why, why would anybody in America trust the Biden administration or honestly a lot of the Democrats for

07:18that matter who, and mainstream media, who said that the president's acuity was okay. You know, I hate that

07:24people are now saying that this was covered up and hit the prostate cancer diagnosis was covered up and

07:30hidden. It probably was not. But the fact that there was conjecture and there's all sudden reasons to

07:36believe that his cognitive ability was definitely covered up, just puts a further cloud on really

07:42the administration and those who hid the mental cognitive decline of the president from the

07:47American people. I think what you're saying, and correct me if I'm wrong, Vice President J.D. Vance

07:52shared something similar. He said, you know, he is feeling for the former president. He's thinking

07:58about him and his family. He also then followed up with this, whether the right time to have this

08:02conversation is now or at some point in the future, we really need, do need to be honest

08:07about whether the former president was capable of doing the job. Do you still think we need to

08:11have that conversation and is now the right time in a few weeks? I mean, what does that look like?

08:16No, I don't think there's any reason to not have that conversation now. It doesn't dim anything

08:21about President Biden's treatment or what he's going through whatsoever. Let's just take, say we take

08:27the cancer diagnosis out. We're talking about it. The whole conversation is about his mental decline

08:32and the fact that this was hidden by the American people, by his wife of all people, by his family,

08:38by his staff members, all of these things going on. So adding this other fuel to the fire, I don't

08:44think it changes the conversation to question, you know, why did they lie so much to the American people?

08:50And right when this news came out, President Trump released a statement saying that he and his wife,

08:55First Lady Melania Trump, are thinking about the Bidens. President Trump suggested, though,

09:00after that yesterday, that somebody is not telling the facts here. But what you're saying is,

09:06as a doctor, based on your expertise, you don't believe that the prostate cancer diagnosis was

09:11covered up, although you have questions separately about President Biden's mental acuity while in office.

09:17Well, I just can't say that it was covered up. There's no indication. The only way I would know if

09:23it was covered up or not is to know when the prostate biopsy was done. When was the determination

09:27of cancer done? It very well could have been just five or six weeks ago. Maybe he had some hip pain.

09:33And then finally, somebody did a PSA and a prostate examination on him. That may very well be plausible.

09:38And that very well could have happened. Or it could have happened, you know, a year or two ago. And

09:43he's been on blood tests. I mean, he's been on hormone treatments. And something else happened.

09:49And again, I'd like to know when the biopsy was done, when the bone scan showed the metastatic

09:53disease. That would give us the truthful answer about the entire thing.

09:57And you posted that on social media. That's your main question. When was the biopsy done? That will

10:02give us the information that we need. Do you think because President Biden is no longer president

10:07anymore, he's not serving in public office, do you think we will get that information? And do you

10:11think the American people deserve that information?

10:13I don't know that we would get that. I'd love for the President Biden to come out and say this

10:19is when my biopsy was done to just it would it would allay all the suspicions. There wouldn't

10:23be any of the conspiracy theories going on. But this administration, you know, good Lord,

10:28I think even the press correspondent for Jill Biden talked about the lack of transparency from

10:33that administration. Why would he not just put that information out and say, look, we're

10:37this is when it was done. Let's actually give a show of some transparency from that

10:41administration. Do you have any other questions about this situation, about the Biden administration

10:46and this type of diagnosis? Well, you know, his diagnosis and his treatment, he's in his

10:53personal life right now. I don't have any questions about that. Hopefully he's surrounded himself

10:56with very good and competent doctors. I'd like to know, number one, when the biopsy is done. And

11:02number two, why wasn't this evaluated further when he was running for the presidency of the United

11:07States? I think that's a real blemish across the across the administration and possibly the

11:13White House doctors. Why weren't they giving a full unabridged account of the president's health

11:18for the American people? You know, moving forward, you know, President Trump went through a full

11:22physical. Everything was determined to be OK. I think the American people need to have trust.

11:27They need to have reliability and a responsible report about the man who's going to be leading the

11:33country moving forward. There's just so much distrust now because of the not of the lack of

11:38transparency from the last administration. I think this would be a step forward to try to, hey,

11:44to try to push transparency again if we knew some more facts about what the former president's

11:50diagnosis, when it happened and when what prompted its investigation. And do you think those doctors

11:56who were doing the physical and the tests on President Biden while he was president, do you think they

12:02need to answer any questions right now? Well, you know, I think it's also a question within medicine

12:07itself. I think there are physicians who are derelict in their duty that are not doing prostate

12:13examinations. That's a that's a really a medical question. So the real question is, did the doctor

12:18offer the test? If he did, did the president refuse? If he did not offer it, why did he not offer it?

12:24Especially really in light. Again, I went back and say I don't normally do this over 75

12:29in the absence of symptoms. If he didn't, why didn't he? So I mean, I think those are fair

12:34questions and they should be answered. Congressman, I appreciate your time today. Thank you so much

12:39for joining me. You're welcome back anytime. Thank you.

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