BREAKING | Biden: Aggressive prostate cancer went undetected during his presidency

Photo: Adam Schultz / The White House / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

ATLANTA — Former President Joe Biden said he did not know he had cancer while he was president and would not have sought a second term in 2024 if he had already been diagnosed, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Biden’s comments came in an interview with People magazine ahead of the Tuesday, Nov. 17, release of his White House memoir, “Promise Me, America,” AP and CNN reported.

“If I had known that I was feeling lousy because I had cancer,” said Biden, who turns 84 on Nov. 20, “I would’ve not gone forward” with a 2024 reelection bid that ended after a widely criticized debate performance against Republican Donald Trump, AP reported, quoting the People interview.

“I don’t think an 80-year-old man with cancer should be running” for president, Biden said, according to AP. CNN, citing the same interview, reported a fuller version of the remark in which Biden also said he “would have resigned” had he known cancer was the reason he felt lousy. “But that wasn’t the case,” he said, according to CNN.

Biden was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer months after leaving office in 2025, AP reported. His personal office announced the diagnosis on May 18, 2025, saying he had been diagnosed the previous Friday after doctors found a prostate nodule following increasing urinary symptoms. The office said the cancer was “characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.” It described that as “a more aggressive form of the disease” that “appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” according to contemporaneous reports by CNN, NBC News and CBS News.

Biden argued that the June 2024 debate, less than five months before Election Day, was not a seismic event even if it accelerated Democrats’ concerns about his age — he was 81 at the time — and his ability to defeat Trump, AP reported.

“First of all, I thought there’d be another debate, which there wasn’t,” Biden said. “But notwithstanding the fact that there wasn’t another debate, it didn’t disturb me because it wasn’t consequential.”

Within weeks, Biden announced he was ending his campaign and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, who secured the Democratic nomination and lost to Trump in the general election.

Biden insisted he was able to perform his duties while he was in office. He said age itself was not disqualifying and meant he had experience and deep personal relationships with world leaders.

“I believe that on an objective basis, I was the best-equipped person to do the job,” he said, according to AP.

CNN reported that Biden said he disclosed the diagnosis when it was found and denied having hidden the truth about his health during his presidency. “I didn’t do that,” he said, according to CNN. “We let the public know when I found out, when I knew what was going on.”

Hunter Biden told the BBC in August that the cancer had spread and was causing his father pain, AP reported. “It’s very painful and it’s very debilitating in many respects,” he said.

In the same People interview, Biden also defended his decision to pardon his son after Hunter Biden’s 2024 conviction on federal felony gun charges and his guilty plea to federal tax charges, AP reported. Hunter Biden has said the pardon damaged his father’s legacy, but the former president said he believed it was necessary because of what AP described as Trump’s penchant for vengeance.

“He goes after people without any basis, whether they’re viewed as an enemy. I knew what he would do,” Joe Biden said, according to AP. “If I hadn’t pardoned — not just some of my family members, anyone who’s dealt with me — he would go back and try to do harm to them.”

Biden called his son “one of the brightest men I know,” adding, “I’m really proud of him.”

Sources:
Bill Barrow, Associated Press, as published by WTOL 11, Nov. 11, 2026: https://www.wtol.com/article/news/nation-world/biden-cancer-reelection-would-not-have-run-if-he-knew/507-a71dd9e3-0473-4e4b-876a-f2b93d4b3222
Bill Barrow, Associated Press, Nov. 11, 2026: https://apnews.com/article/biden-cancer-trump-hunter-pardon-2024-election-f0f3e8dc07cee2463e1f8501461dda12
CNN, “Biden says he would not have proceeded with campaign had he known he had cancer,” Nov. 11, 2026: https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/11/politics/joe-biden-cancer-book-interview
CNN, “Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive form’ of prostate cancer,” May 18, 2025: https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/18/politics/joe-biden-prostate-cancer
NBC News, “Former President Joe Biden diagnosed with aggressive form of prostate cancer,” May 18, 2025: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/former-president-joe-biden-diagnosed-prostate-cancer-rcna207571
CBS News, “Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive form’ of prostate cancer, his office says,” May 18, 2025: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-biden-diagnosed-prostate-cancer/
Associated Press, “Biden to publish a book after midterm elections,” on the Nov. 17, 2026, release of “Promise Me, America”: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-memoir-promise-me-america-fc71dd2c1da239995f606b968c7eaac4