US President Joe Biden, at a press meet, said he has cancer. The startling statement led the White House press office to quickly clarify that he was referring to skin cancer treatment that he had before taking office last year. The remark was made during a speech about global warming, in which Biden described emissions from oil refineries near his childhood home in Claymont, Delaware.
“That’s why I and so damn many other people I grew up with have cancer and why for the longest time Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation,” Biden said, the NY Post reported.
A Washington Post columnist tweeted to clarify the gaffe. He wrote: “Before he became president, he'd had non-melanoma skin cancers removed.” It is, however, not clear why the president used the present verb tense for the remark.
During the speech, Biden was referring to the harm caused by emissions from oil refineries near his childhood home in Delaware and said, "My mother drove us rather than us being able to walk and guess what? The first frost, you know what was happening? You had to put on your windshield wipers to get literally the oil slick off the window. That's why I - and so damn many other people I grew up with - have cancer and why for the longest time, Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation."
