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Nov 19, 2021, 5 tweets

U.S. President Joe Biden will transfer power to Vice President Kamala Harris while he is under anesthesia for a routine colonoscopy he will undergo as part of his annual physical, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement reut.rs/3HvklHo

Biden is undergoing his annual physical at the Walter Reed military hospital outside of Washington. Harris is the first woman to serve as vice president of the United States; no woman has ever been president in the country's nearly 250-year history reut.rs/3Ftl5uQ

Presidential power has been transferred to the vice president before, when President George W. Bush had colonoscopies in 2002 and 2007

Biden, who turns 79 on Saturday, is the oldest person to take office as U.S. president. Although speculation has persisted about whether he will run for re-election in 2024, he has said he expects to seek a second four-year term alongside Harris

Biden has pledged to be more transparent about his health than predecessor Donald Trump. The Republican visited Walter Reed in 2019 for an undisclosed reason that a former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, later revealed was for a colonoscopy reut.rs/3Ftl5uQ

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