Remarks Biden made about expanding access to mental health care were taken out of context. He didn't say he had cured cancer, but rather discussed the importance of finding a cure to cancer in a list of bipartisan policy goals.
On July 25, 2023, claims began to spread on social media platforms that U.S. President Joe Biden said he had "cured cancer."
"President Biden says he 'ended cancer as we know it,'" a TikTok post said on that date. The video claimed to show Biden saying, "'If you could do anything at all, Joe, what would you do?' I said, 'I'd cure cancer.' And they looked at me like, 'Why cancer?' Because no one thinks we can. That's why. And we can. We can end cancer as we know it."
We found posts about the claim on other social media platforms, like Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook. We also received reader mail about the claim.
The remarks were taken out of context. Biden didn't say he had cured cancer, but rather discussed the importance of finding a cure to cancer as part of a list of bipartisan policy goals.
We found the quote from the clip in remarks Biden made about expanding access to mental health care on July 25, 2023, at the White House. We also found video of the remarks on the White House's YouTube account. During the remarks, he said (bolded emphasis ours):
You know, in the last two State of the Union Addresses, I've laid out what I call the Unity Agenda. It is made up of four big things to — that we're going to do together as a nation.
One of the things I'm always asked is: You know, why — why Americans have sort of lost faith for a while on being — being able to do big things.
"If you could do anything at all, Joe, what would you do?" I said, "I'd cure cancer." And they looked at me like, "Why cancer?" Because no one thinks we can. That's why. And we can. We can end cancer as we know it.
Deliver on our sacred obligations to veterans is the second thing I think is critically important.
Thirdly was beat the opioid epidemic, which we're still fighting very hard.
And fourth was to tackle the mental health crisis, which is why we're here today.
In the actual recording, it sounds as though Biden may have flubbed, "We can end(ed) cancer as we know it." Either way, it doesn't make sense to interpret Biden's remarks as being about ending cancer, given he was laying out policy goals in the speech (not accomplishments).
Biden mentioned the Unity Agenda during State of the Union speeches in both 2022 and 2023. (He did not mention the agenda during his address to a joint session of Congress in 2021.) During the 2022 speech, he defined the agenda as four policy goals: beating the opioid epidemic, improving mental health, supporting veterans, and ending cancer.
As Biden didn't say he had cured cancer, but rather discussed curing cancer as part of his policy goals, we have rated this claim as "Miscaptioned."