OAN’s Brooke Mallory
2:50 PM – Monday, May 29, 2023
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.”
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Biden explained to the bereaved relatives of the fallen at Arlington National Cemetery that although his son did not pass away on the “battlefield,” he thought his cancer might have been brought on by exposure to dangerous fumes from “burn pits” while on a one-year deployment. Correcting his past statements.
“Our losses are not the same. He didn’t perish in the battlefield. It was cancer that stole him from us a year after being deployed as a major in the U.S. Army National Guard in Iraq,” Biden said, misstating by about five years the duration between his son’s return from deployment and his passing.
Since last year, the 80-year-old president has confused viewers by asserting that his son died in Iraq at least three other times.
In October, Biden said again that his son Beau had “lost his life in Iraq,” and in November, he asserted that Iraq is “where my son died.” On his way to the G-7 conference in Hiroshima this month, he also told a group of Marines that “we lost him [Beau] in Iraq.”
The former attorney general of Delaware, Beau Biden, passed away in 2015 at the age of 46 from glioblastoma, a fast-growing and aggressive brain tumor, at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Tuesday marks the seventh anniversary of his passing.
A recent Washington Post-ABC poll found that only 32% of the public thinks that Biden, the nation’s oldest president ever, has the mental acuity needed to keep his position. As a result, this particular issue has become a key campaign talking point for Republican officials.
Nevertheless, Biden also has a lengthy history of exaggerating or making false or improbable statements, such as when he declared in December that his uncle, Frank Biden, had received an honorary Purple Heart. Biden also declared in May that he had been chosen to attend the Naval Academy back in 1965.
However, neither assertion is supported by any evidence.
Biden signed the PACT Act in August of last year, which permits the Veterans Affairs Department to more easily approve disability insurance claims for veterans with respiratory conditions or cancer that may be related to chemicals from combat zones, and also provides increased medical treatment for up to 10 years after a veteran leaves the military, an increase from the 5 years it was prior.
During a speech, when the president was speaking on the signing of the PACT Act, he repeated again that his son had died from his experiences while on deployment in Iraq. However, this particular time he at least clarified that he believed that the effects of war were what caused his son’s demise, not combat itself.
“Many of our nation’s warriors… have selflessly served only to return home and suffer from the permanent effects of the poisonous smoke. Too many have died — excuse the personal reference, like my son Beau,” Biden said.
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