Does President Joe Biden have cancer? Has he had cancer?

On Wednesday 20 July, President Biden mispoke leading a panic on social media after he said that he had cancer.

“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 have cancer.”

The comments were made during a speech addressing the climate crisis in Massachusetts where he was joined by National Climate Advisor, Gina McCarthy, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, Senator Ed Markey, Senator Elizabeth Warren Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Congressman Jake Auchincloss, and Congressman Bill Keating.

The gaffe was made as the president explained the negative impact fossil fuels and the pollution they create have on human health. One in five premature deaths, globally, was attributed to fossil fuels by researchers at Harvard University, casting light on the serious risks posed by these resources. Air pollution and exposure to fossil fuels can lead to cancer, as noted by the president, as well as heart and lung disease.

The White House quickly released a statement that the president misspoke and that what he meant to say is that he had skin cancer in the past. President Biden, to be clear, does not currently have cancer.

When did President Biden have skin cancer?

In the medical report then-candidate Joe Biden released when running for president, he reported that he had had several non-melanoma localized skin cancers removed. To ensure that the skin cancer does not return he undergoes full body dermatological surveillance. The medical report does not say exactly when he had cancer.

Cancer, is however, a concern for the Biden family. President Biden’s eldest son Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 at age forty-six. Beau was a veteran, lawyer and in 2007 was elected Attorney General of Delaware. Many believed Beau to be a rising star in the Democratic Party and if one Biden were to make it to the White House it would have been him.