EXCLUSIVE: New Book Reveals Joe Biden 'Appeared to Confess He Knew He Was Doomed to Die of Cancer' Like Son Beau Before Running For President in 2020
Biden promised he would be open about his health.
May 20 2025, Published 2:28 p.m. ET
Questions about just how long former President Joe Biden was aware of his "aggressive" form of prostate cancer have been reinforced by his own words, RadarOnline.com can report.
In an explosive new book out Tuesday, then-candidate Biden had an eyebrow-raising response to an inquiry about his health.
The former president has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson's highly anticipated look at Biden's physical and mental health, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, is now out on shelves, and it features a startling exchange the 82-year-old had years earlier with the cable news veteran.
Quoting a discussion from a September 2020 Town Hall with Biden, Tapper recalled asking: "If you're elected, you would be the oldest president ever. ... Will you pledge that, if you're elected, you will be transparent about your health?
Biden instantly said yes, as Tapper clarified: "All facets of your health, with urgency, so that we know—?"
The candidate cut the question off: "Yes, when it occurs, when anything occurs. And anything can happen. Anything can happen…. I have become a great respecter of fate, a great respecter of fate. I have seen too much of it in my family related to accidents alone.
"And so I guarantee you, I guarantee you, I will be totally transparent in terms of my health and all aspects of my health."
The last words of the book are simply: "He was not."
Cancer Reveal
Biden was well aware of the damage cancer can cause, having to tragically say goodbye to his son Beau after he passed away from the disease on May 30, 2015, at the age of 46.
News that the former president did not know about his own diagnosis before last week has been questioned by doctors.
Renowned oncologist Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel told MSNBC's Morning Joe such an advanced diagnosis would have been known, possibly for years.
Emanuel agreed: "Oh yeah. He did not develop it in the last 100-200 days. He had it while he was president. He probably had it at the start of his presidency, in 2021."
The doctor added: "I don’t think there’s any disagreement about that."
Doctor's Orders
Beau Biden died of cancer in 2015.
Other top doctors also wondered how a former president could be diagnosed with such late stage cancer – especially as it can be detected early with routine bloodwork recommended for all men over the age of 50.
"It is inconceivable that this was not being followed before he left the Presidency," wrote Dr. Howie Forman, a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging, public health management and economics at Yale.
He noted the test for prostate-specific antigen would have shown he had cancer "for some time before this diagnosis," given how aggressive it is.
Trump Weighs In
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Trump questioned the delay in the reveal as well.
Even President Trump has jumped on the speculation bandwagon. After at first sending his condolences to Biden and his family in an uncharacteristically sentimental tweet, the current president has now hinted that Biden might have been hiding his diagnosis from the public.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said: "I think it’s very sad, actually. I’m surprised that ... the public wasn’t notified a long time ago because to get to stage nine (of prostate cancer), that's a long time."
He added that "somebody is not telling the facts. … It’s a big problem."
