Biden’s Somerset Visit May Have Been First Cancer Revelation

Former President Joe Biden addressed environmental issues while standing in a dusty Somerset, Massachusetts field on a sizzling hot July afternoon back in 2022.

It was not a particularly memorable speech and would have been forgotten altogether by history had Biden not announced this week that he is battling an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

READ MORE: Biden Highlights New Bedford Success at Somerset's Brayton Point

A lengthy motorcade delivered Biden and his entourage to the former Brayton Point Power Station property. With Fall River's Braga Bridge as a backdrop, Biden outlined plans for the property to be a part of the offshore wind industry.

Two monstrous cooling towers, once part of the coal-fired electric generating plant, had recently come down and Biden, the green energy president, was taking a victory lap.

Things didn't turn out as planned.

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State, local, and federal elected officials filed into the dirt lot hoping to be seen on the evening cable news. Among the assembled were Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren. Former Senator John Kerry, Biden's climate czar, was also present.

The 20-minute speech was short on substance and long on rhetoric, but in hindsight, it may have been the first indication that Biden was sick.

During his remarks, Biden discussed the environmental impact of oil pollution in Delaware.

"That's why I, and so damn many other people I grew up with, have cancer," he said.

READ MORE: Biden's Strong Somerset Performance Overshadowed by Cancer Statement

Biden's comment was noted, but given Biden's propensity for gaffes and wild statements, no one took it seriously – until now.

Perhaps Biden was referring to the skin cancer he received treatment for, or maybe the prostate cancer had already been diagnosed and Biden slipped by mentioning it publicly.

READ MORE: Auchincloss on Why Biden Chose Somerset for Climate Speech

Current events have shifted attention back to 2022 when then-President Biden visited Somerset and what it was he was trying to tell us that hot, steamy day as he stood before Mount Hope Bay.