Police in Las Vegas were told to prepare to meet President Biden at two local hospitals days before he ended his re-election bid, according to newly released dispatch audio, raising new questions about what the White House described as a positive COVID-19 test that forced him to cancel a campaign event.
Biden, 81, was never hospitalized July 17, instead flying Air Force One back to his beach house in Delaware, where he remained before issuing a statement on social media four days later announcing his withdrawal from the race.
The president was not actually seen in public July 23, when he returned to Washington to explain his decision to drop out in an address to the nation the following evening.
A trio of dispatches, obtained and released by the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, reveal officers responded to a Code 421, meaning the president was likely “sick or injured,” and deployed lights and sirens to clear a path initially to University Medical Center and then to Harry Reid International Airport.
“For everybody on the radio, right now POTUS is 421. He’s being seen, so we are kind of waiting to see how this is shaping out,” one officer says in the recordings.
In other dispatches, officers urge “everyone who is able straight to Valley Hospital ER” and are instructed to meet “behind the ER entrance where the ambulance is going.”
The officers put out a call to be on maximum tactical alert at the time — and implemented a “full closure” of some major thruways.
“All my units at the airport, be advised that the motorcade is at Air Force One, so just hold your road closures until I tell you otherwise,” one officer says in a dispatch
“I need to get all the major intersections with lights shut down from Desert Inn all the way to Russell,” another says, referring to the road that leads to the Vegas airport.
“Control, 302, just want to let everybody know great work out there. We put that together ad hoc,” an officer can be overheard in a later portion of one of the dispatches.
“Appreciate all the resources coming over. You did a fantastic job. Looked like we had planned it for weeks. So, great job everybody. If I could ask everybody to please stand by until we get the plane off the ground.”
Judicial Watch obtained the recordings following a Nevada Public Records Act request about the abrupt cancellation of Biden’s scheduled speech before a Latino advocacy group.
Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, said the audio raised “significant questions about whether the American people were told the full truth about President Biden’s health status.”
University Medical Center spokesman Scott Kerbs told FactCheck.org on July 24 that Biden did not visit the hospital, but acknowledged that personnel were told “to prepare for a potential medical visit from the president.”
“As Nevada’s only Level I Trauma Center and the hospital tasked with caring for the Commander-in-Chief during official visits to the area, UMC was fully prepared to provide the state’s highest level of care for the president,” Kerbs said at the time.
“It has been standard practice for many years, across administrations, for hospitals to be among the wide range of resources that are always put on standby when any president travels,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told the same outlet in an email, adding that “the only medical situation was [Biden’s] COVID diagnosis, which was publicly announced
Biden had been slated to speak before UnidosUS — and was running 90 minutes late before the group’s president took the stage to announce the commander in chief was ill and would not be appearing.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Biden’s personal physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor both later confirmed the COVID-positive test.
“He felt OK for his first event of the day, but given that he was not feeling better, point of care testing for COVID-19 was conducted, and the results were positive for the COVID-19 virus,” O’Connor said at the time.
“Given this, the President will be self-isolating in accordance with CDC guidance for symptomatic individuals. PCR confirmation testing will be pending. His symptoms remain mild, his respiratory rate is normal at 16, his temperature is normal at 97.8 and his pulse oximetry is normal at 97%. The President has received his first dose of Paxlovid. He will be self-isolating at his home in Rehoboth.”
Biden still taped a radio interview with Univision the same day, and even met supporters at a Mexican restaurant while apparently experiencing COVID symptoms.
After landing in Delaware that night, the president told reporters, “I am doing well” as he exited Air Force One maskless.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
