Biden health exam called straightforward

US President Joe Biden, 80, underwent a regular physical exam Thursday ahead of an expected announcement that he will seek re-election.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the exam was "straightforward", and the findings would be released later Thursday.

Biden, the oldest person to serve as US president, is expected to launch his re-election campaign soon. Polls indicate that voters have concerns about his ability to serve four more years if he wins in 2024.

Biden's three-hour session with doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Maryland, was his second extensive exam since he took office in January 2021.

At that time, Biden's physician, Dr Kevin O'Connor, wrote in a memo that the president was "fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency" while noting that the president was coughing with more frequency.

O'Connor also noted that the president had more stiffness and less fluidity in his gait, which he attributed to the "wear and tear" of osteoarthritic changes to the president's spine. He had a polyp removed from his colon, and his contact lens prescription updated, a six-page memo said.

When Biden underwent the colonoscopy, he briefly transferred presidential power to Vice-President Kamala Harris. She became the first woman to temporarily serve as president.

Biden had COVID-19 last summer and suffered a rare rebound case of the disease, prompting him to isolate at the White House for several weeks. He experienced mild symptoms and was treated with the antiviral drug Paxlovid.

On Wednesday, Nikki Haley called for "mental competency tests'' for politicians over the age of 75.

The onetime US ambassador to the UN and former South Carolina governor floated the idea at the end of her announcement this week of launching her run for the GOP presidential nomination.

But Haley, 51, said Thursday she sees "no reason to believe" that former president Donald Trump, 75, who also is running again, wouldn't perform well on the mental competency test.

"I think he did great the last time he did it. I have no reason to think he wouldn't do well this time. But I do think we need it," Haley said in an interview on Fox News.