During a speech on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden made a bold claim, stating that his administration had successfully cured cancer. Speaking in the East Room of the White House, Biden said, “I said I’d cure cancer. They looked at me like, ‘Why cancer’? Because no one thinks we can. That’s why. And we can. We ended cancer as we know it.”
The president’s statement about curing cancer came as he was scheduled to discuss expanding Americans’ access to mental health care. Following his cancer remark, he shifted the topic to healthcare for military veterans, which is managed by the federal government.
Almost immediately, Republicans took notice of Biden’s claim and criticized him for it. Many have accused the 80-year-old Democrat of exhibiting signs of dementia. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert from Colorado sarcastically remarked, “Biden just told everyone that he cured cancer. I feel like that would have at least gotten a press release.” Texas activist Christian Collins also chimed in, tweeting, “Biden cured cancer in the same way that he marched for civil rights, was arrested trying to see Nelson Mandela, grew up in the black church, was raised in the Puerto Rican community, was a professor at UPenn, built the greatest economy in the world, and never spoke to his son about business.”
This isn’t the first time that Biden has made questionable claims or misspoke in public. Last week, he introduced himself as an artificial intelligence, and the week before, he urged Russia to “stop attacking Russia” during a speech in Europe. Earlier this month, he even claimed that Moscow was “losing the war in Iraq.” These instances have added to a growing list of controversial statements made by the president throughout his 50-year political career.
It’s worth noting that Biden’s elder son, Beau, passed away in 2015 from brain cancer. The president has attributed his son’s illness to the use of “burn pits” by the US military to dispose of garbage. Beau Biden was exposed to these toxic pits during his deployment in Iraq in 2008 as a military lawyer and earlier as a contractor in Kosovo.
In February 2022, Biden announced a government program aimed at finding a cure for cancer, calling it a relaunch of the Obama administration’s 2016 ‘Cancer Moonshot’ initiative. The program’s objective is to reduce the cancer death rate by half within 25 years and improve the lives of individuals with cancer and cancer survivors, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Furthermore, in March of this year, Biden underwent surgery to remove a small skin lesion from his chest that was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer.
While Biden’s claim that his administration has cured cancer may have raised eyebrows and garnered criticism, it should be understood within the context of his personal connection to the disease and his ongoing efforts to combat it through government programs. The fight against cancer remains a priority for the Biden administration, and the president’s statement likely reflects his determination to make progress in this area.
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