Biden family misled public on Beau’s cancer diagnosis, new book says

Former President Joe Biden and his late son, Beau Biden, are at the center of a new book that claims they actively chose to conceal details and mislead the public regarding Beau’s cancer diagnosis while he served as attorney general of Delaware. The book titled “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” authored by journalists Jake Tapper of CNN and Alex Thompson of Axios, was released on Tuesday.

According to the book, the Biden family made a conscious decision to keep Beau Biden’s cancer diagnosis a secret and misled the media about his condition. Beau collapsed during a family vacation in the summer of 2013 and underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor. Despite facing health challenges, Beau continued to serve as attorney general of Delaware, but started reducing his public appearances and media interviews.

The book reveals that in September 2013, Joe and Beau’s team debated how much to disclose about Beau’s health but ultimately chose to say nothing. Beau later told a local reporter that he had been given a “clean bill of health” in November. However, in February 2014, a neurologist disclosed that a “small lesion” had been removed from Beau’s brain, which was actually larger than a golf ball, as later shared by the former president.

Beau underwent treatments across the country under the alias George Lincoln to maintain privacy. His wife, Hallie, expressed confusion as to why Beau’s declining health was kept secret, as the public could have offered support. Despite this, Joe and Beau remained adamant about not sharing details with the public, according to the book.

The book also alleges that the then-vice president ordered his staff to mislead the media about his whereabouts, as he would travel to Houston to be with Beau for treatment while his team claimed he was going to Delaware on weekends.

Beau tragically passed away from a glioblastoma brain tumor in May 2015 at the age of 46. “Original Sin” delves into the 2024 election cycle and how Biden’s team purportedly orchestrated a cover-up to conceal the extent of his cognitive decline.

A spokesperson for the former president has not responded to requests for comment on the book’s claims. The revelations in “Original Sin” shed light on the complexities of the Biden family’s decision-making during a challenging time, as they navigated Beau’s health struggles and the impact on their public image.