WASHINGTON: US Vice President Kamala Harris has become first woman in the American history who held presidential reins, although very briefly. She held presidential powers for a total of one hour and 25 minutes while President Joe Biden was under anesthetic, the White House said on Friday.

The White House press office said that official letters to Congress declaring the temporary transfer of power were sent at 10.10am. “The president resumed his duties at 11.35am,”, the White House said in a statement.

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.

“Following the process set out in the Constitution, Pres­ident Biden will transfer power to the Vice President for the brief period of time when he is under anesthesia,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said in a statement.

Biden undergoes colonoscopy

“The Vice President will work from her office in the West Wing during this time,” Psaki said.

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.

Biden, 78, had his last full exam in December 2019, when doctors found the former vice president to be healthy, vigorous and fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency,” according to a doctors report at the time. Biden, who turns 79 on Saturday, is the oldest person to serve as president, and interest in his health has been high since he declared his candidacy for the White House in 2019.

Dr Kevin OConnor, who has been Bidens primary care physician since 2009, wrote in a three-page note that the then-presidential candidate was in overall good shape.

In that report, OConnor said that since 2003, Biden has had episodes of atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat thats potentially serious but treatable. At the time, OConnor cited a list of tests that showed Bidens heart was functioning normally and his only needed care was a blood thinner to prevent the most worrisome risk, blood clots or stroke.

Biden had a brush with death in 1988, requiring surgery to repair two brain aneurysms, weak bulges in arteries, one of them leaking. Biden has never had a recurrence, his doctor said, citing a test in 2014 that examined his arteries.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2021