President Joe Biden has been known to tell a tall tale from time to time, but he was skewered for comments he seemingly made about cancer on Tuesday.
In a speech delivered from the East Room, Biden sought to end the stigma of mental illness.
“And folks, you know, I don’t know what the difference between breaking your arm and having a mental breakdown is. It’s health – there’s no distinction,” the president explained. “We must fulfill the promise of true mental health parity for all Americans now.”
Ended Cancer?
In Tuesday’s address, Biden further went on to say that he has spearheaded the way for research and treatment that could help end cancer. It has been a personal issue for him as his late son Beau Biden died in 2015 from brain cancer.
“One of the things I’m always asked is, you know, why Americans have sort of lost faith for a while in being able to do big things. ‘If you could do anything at all, Joe, what would you do?’ I said, ‘I’d cure cancer,'” the president added. “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.”
That final line drew the attention of critics of the president, with many suggesting that Biden’s mental decline was on full display.
“We ended cancer as we know it,” was soon quoted across social media, as it appeared to be the latest verbal faux pas from the gaffe-prone Biden.
However, according to the official White House transcript, Biden actually stated, “We can end cancer as we know it,” while Newsweek reported that the president “appears to slur the words ‘can’ and ‘end’ together during his sentence.” The news outlet also noted this isn’t the first time that critics of the president have called him out for misspeaking during a national address, but also added that “nor is it uncommon for Biden to slip up while speaking.”
In this case, perhaps the critics were a little too harsh, given that many a speaker has mixed up words.
Ending Cancer
Biden pledged to “cure cancer” during the 2020 campaign, and last year reignited the “Cancer Moonshot” program that was launched during the Obama administration. Biden has said the goal is to cut the death rate from cancer by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years, while he pledged to make fatal cancers more treatable.
The White House has described the Cancer Moonshot as “a White House initiative to bring renewed leadership to the fight against cancer, facilitate new collaborations, and drive progress across the cancer journey utilizing all facets of the oncology community – federal agencies and departments, private companies, healthcare providers, patient groups, philanthropies, and all Americans.”
The Biden Administration has called upon the private sector to “step up — to develop and test new treatments, to share more data and knowledge, and to collaborate on tools that can benefit all Americans.”
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
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