Yesterday, Biden said that he has cancer. While giving a speech about the effects of emissions from oil refineries near his childhood home in Claymont, Del., Biden commented, “That’s why I and so damn many other people I grew up with have cancer”:
Biden: "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."pic.twitter.com/IvCvprDKJV
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) July 20, 2022
The White House rushed to do the cleanup job for the president. Andrew Bates, White House deputy press secretary, pointed to a tweet by Glenn Kessler that described how Biden had non-melanoma skin cancers removed before taking office.
Still, the reaction to the comment — or rather the non-reaction — is telling. Greg Price, senior digital strategist at X Strategies, makes a great point:
You know things have gotten ridiculous when the President of the United States says out loud that he has cancer and everyone responds by saying "oh, that's probably just his dementia."
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 20, 2022
It’s somewhat amazing that when our POTUS speaks, we don’t necessarily believe what he says. Biden declared that he has a potentially deadly disease, and many of us just assumed it was a gaffe.
This also makes me wonder what happened to the Washington Post Fact Checker team. During the Trump presidency, the Post tracked all of Trump’s alleged “false or misleading statements” — 30,573 of them. Yet, when the candidate they supported took office, they stopped keeping track. Given Biden’s myriad lies, misleading statements, and gaffes, I think they should probably get that team up and running again.