On Memorial Day, a day to remember the fallen soldiers who courageously served our great nation, President Joe Biden took to the stage at Arlington National Cemetery and made an overdue correction. His son, Beau Biden, a former attorney general of Delaware and an Army National Guard major, succumbed to brain cancer, not combat, as he had previously claimed several times in public addresses.
Beau Biden’s life was tragically cut short at 46 in 2015 due to a rapid and aggressive form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma. His passing occurred not in the battlefield of Iraq but at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The late major was a respected figure committed to service both at home and abroad, and he deserves to be remembered accurately.
At a Memorial Day speech on Monday, President Joe Biden admitted that his late son Beau had died of brain cancer, not combat, 11 days after falsely telling U.S. troops in Japan that Beau had died “in Iraq.”
— KDH (@KellyHarrelson5) May 30, 2023
However, Biden’s previous remarks painted a different picture. The president misstated the cause of his son’s death multiple times, claiming Beau had “lost his life in Iraq.” He persisted with this narrative, telling a group of Marines on his way to a G-7 conference earlier in May that “we lost him in Iraq.”
In the face of criticism, Biden has finally set the record straight, albeit five years late. The president’s speech stated, “Our losses are not the same. He didn’t perish on the battlefield. It was cancer that stole him from us a year after being deployed.”
Biden has a well-known history of exaggerating or simply fabricating factual claims. Those include stating his uncle, Frank Biden, had received a Purple Heart and his assertion that he had been chosen to attend the Naval Academy back in 1965. No evidence supports these claims, bringing into question the credibility of any of the president’s remarks.
This pattern of inconsistencies has stirred public concern, with a Washington Post-ABC poll revealing that only 32% of the public believes that Biden has the mental sharpness necessary for his role as president. This concern has notably caught the attention of Republican officials, who are using it as a key talking point in their campaigns.
In his speech, Biden introduced a theory that Beau’s cancer might have been linked to exposure to toxic fumes from “burn pits” during his deployment in Iraq. While this cannot be confirmed or refuted, it is noteworthy that Biden signed the PACT Act last year. This legislation allows the Veterans Affairs Department to approve disability claims related to combat zone chemical exposure more readily.
Regardless of Biden’s motivations behind these statements, the matter is about paying respect to those who faithfully served our country. By inaccurately recounting the cause of Beau Biden’s death, the president has unfortunately cast a shadow over his son’s legacy.
