Biden says he has cancer, White House clarifies statement

Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he has cancer, a remark that was immediately clarified by the White House to be referring to his earlier skin cancer treatments.

The US President was giving a speech about global warming and climate change, in which he was describing the effects of emissions from oil refineries near his hometown.

“That’s why I and so damn many other people I grew up with have cancer and why for the longest time Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation,” said Biden.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates retweeted Washington Post columnist Glenn Kessler's tweet about Biden's “non-melanoma skin cancers”, which he had removed before taking office.

"This is what he was talking about," clarified Bates.

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