Las Vegas cops prepare to meet ‘ill or injured’ Biden in hospital days before he drops out of 2024 race: audio

Las Vegas police were asked to prepare to meet with President Biden at two local hospitals days before he ended his re-election bid, according to a newly released audio recording, 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 on July 17, but took Air Force One back to his beach house in Delaware, where he stayed before posting a statement on social media four days later announcing his withdrawal from the race.

The president was not seen in public on July 23, when he returned to Washington to explain his decision to step down in a speech to the nation the following evening.

A trio of news reports, obtained and published by the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, reveal that agents responded to a 421 code, meaning the president was likely “ill or injured,” and deployed lights and sirens to clear a path first to University Medical Center and then to Harry Reid International Airport.

“For everyone on the radio, POTUS is on 421 right now. He’s being seen, so we’re kind of waiting to see how this develops,” one officer said in the recordings.

In other dispatches, officers urged “all those who are able to do so directly to go to the emergency room at Valley Hospital” and were asked to gather “behind the emergency room entrance, where the ambulance goes.”

Officers issued a call to be on high tactical alert at the time – and implemented a “full closure” of some main routes.

“All my units at the airport, please be advised that the motorcade is at Air Force One, so keep your roads closed until I tell you otherwise,” one officer said in a dispatch.

“I have to turn off every major intersection with lights out, from Desert Inn to Russell,” says another, referring to the road that leads to the Vegas airport.

“Control, 302, I just want to let everyone know what a great job they did. We organized this in an ad hoc manner,” an officer can be heard saying in a later part of one of the dispatches.

“Appreciate all the resources that are coming. You did a fantastic job. It seemed like we had been planning this for weeks. So, good job everyone. If I could ask everyone to stay there until the plane takes off.

Judicial Watch obtained the recordings following a Nevada Public Records Act request regarding the abrupt cancellation of Biden’s planned speech to a Latino advocacy group.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said the audio raised “important questions about whether the American people have been telling the whole truth about President Biden’s health.”

University Medical Center spokesperson Scott Curbs told FactCheck.org on July 24 that Biden did not visit the hospital, but acknowledged that staff had been asked to “prepare for a possible medical examination of the president”.

“As Nevada’s only Level I trauma center and the hospital responsible for caring for the Commander in Chief during official visits to the region, UMC was fully prepared to provide the highest level of care in the State to the President,” Curbs said at the time. .

“It has been standard practice for many years, across administrations, that hospitals are among the wide array of resources that are always put on hold when a president travels,” said the deputy press secretary for the White House, Andrew Bates, to the same media in an email. adding that “the only medical situation was (Biden’s) COVID diagnosis, which was announced publicly.”

Biden was scheduled to speak before UnidosUS — and was 90 minutes late before the group’s president took the stage to announce that the commander in chief was ill and would not appear.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Biden’s personal physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, both later confirmed that the test was positive for COVID.

“He was feeling fine for his first event of the day, but since he was not feeling better, point-of-care COVID-19 testing was done and the results were positive for the virus of COVID-19,” O’Connor said. time.

“Given this, the President will self-isolate in accordance with CDC guidelines for symptomatic individuals. Confirmatory PCR tests 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 97% normal. The President received his first dose of Paxlovid. He will self-isolate at his home in Rehoboth.

Biden still recorded a radio interview with Univision the same day and even met with supporters at a Mexican restaurant while reportedly exhibiting COVID symptoms.

After landing in Delaware that night, the president told reporters, “I’m fine” as he left Air Force One without a mask.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.