Biden Appears to Say 'We Ended Cancer as We Know It,' But WH Transcript, Fact-Checkers Say He Didn't
CLARIFICATION, July 28, 2023: This headline and article have been updated to reflect statements from fact-checking organizations about President Joe Biden’s comments as well as the White House transcript of his remarks.
At this point, it is quite obvious that President Joe Biden’s mental health is a serious concern. So obvious, in fact, that it hardly merits taking the time to point out.
Yet, despite all the embarrassing gaffes and speaking mistakes, each one more bizarre than the last, Biden always manages to find a way to lower the bar even further.
For many viewers, Biden’s Tuesday speech at the White House about improving access to mental health care provided another example of just how gone his mind truly is.
During his speech, the president appeared to claim that his administration had ended cancer.
Talking about future policy goals, Biden told the audience, “I said I’d cure cancer and they looked at me like, ‘Why cancer?’ Because no one thinks we can, that’s why. We can.”
If only he had stopped there. But he didn’t. The president then added, “We ended cancer as we know it.”
At least that’s what many people are certain they heard. But in 2023, hearing isn’t necessarily believing.
The official White House transcript of the speech records Biden’s comment as, “We can end cancer as we know it.”
Biden’s deputy press secretary, Andrew Bates, told AFP’s Fact Check the “official transcript is correct.”
And of course he did. Doubtless Bates wants to keep his job, so what else could he possibly say?
The president’s defenders also note that the “we ended cancer” interpretation makes no sense given that Biden was speaking in the context of future policy goals.
That’s true. But that doesn’t change what people heard.
One Twitter user wrote, “We are an international joke.”
Biden just announced that he’s cured cancer
Yes, he seriously did
We are an international joke pic.twitter.com/fGEIU47usH
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) July 25, 2023
Another Twitter user responded to the comment by sarcastically asking when this happened.
Joe Biden claims he “ended cancer as we know it”
When did this happen?
pic.twitter.com/AXLNplx9Tr— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 25, 2023
Of course, everyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that is not true. Cancer is still a very serious problem in America and around the world, and millions of people are undergoing treatment for it.
Biden surely knows this (at least most of the time), but this isn’t really about what Biden knows. It’s about what he projects to the rest of the country and, far more importantly, to the rest of the world.
Biden’s strange claim that cancer is over only further throws into doubt his fitness to hold the office of the presidency.
As time goes on, we will probably see more bizarre and embarrassing comments from the president.
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