The New York Post noted that Biden’s words initially sounded like an informal health announcement during a speech on global warming in which he described emissions from oil refineries near his childhood home in Clement, Delaware.
“That’s why I and a lot of the people I grew up with had cancer, and that’s why Delaware had one of the highest rates of cancer in the country,” Biden said.
White House press secretary Andrew Bates referred to a tweet from writer Glenn Kessler, who noted that Biden had “non-melanoma skin cancers” before taking office.
The New York Post said it was not clear why Biden chose to use the present tense to describe his cancer experience.
Biden’s doctor, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, issued a health report last year that did not indicate that the president currently suffers from any types of cancer. O’Connor’s report attributes Biden’s skin cancer to exposure to the sun, not exposure from the fossil fuel industry.