Joe Biden’s got a new fight—cancer and critics. At a Memorial Day event in Delaware on May 30, 2025, the former president punched back at claims of his mental decline with a quip that’s pure Biden bravado. But with a fresh prostate cancer diagnosis and a flurry of books painting him as a fading leader, the timing couldn’t be worse.
Fox News reported that Biden spoke at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware, to honor fallen service members. This was his first public outing since revealing an aggressive prostate cancer diagnosis on May 18, 2025.
The event, hosted by the Delaware Commission of Veteran Affairs, saw Biden lean into a significant amount of defiance after months of criticism from Democrats.
On May 18, Biden announced he was battling an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer, a first-time diagnosis, per his office.
He’s now on a pill-based treatment, exuding optimism with, “My expectation is we’re going to be able to beat this.” That’s the spirit, Joe, but the health battle’s only half the story.
A new book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” dropped on May 20, 2025, penned by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson.
It claims Biden struggled to string sentences together for campaign ads and relied on tightly scripted Cabinet meetings. The authors allege his team hid the extent of his supposed mental fog—a charge that’s got conservatives nodding knowingly.
Biden’s camp fired back, dismissing the book’s claims as baseless. A spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “There is nothing in this book that shows Joe Biden failed to do his job.” Sounds like a classic Washington dodge, but the leaked audio from 2023 paints a tougher picture.
In May 2025, audio from an October 2023 interview with former Special Counsel Robert Hur surfaced, catching Biden slurring words and forgetting the year his son passed. Multiple 2025 books have piled on, chronicling what they call Biden’s mental slide. The left calls it ageist nonsense; the right smells a cover-up.
At the Delaware event, Biden didn’t just honor the fallen—he took a swing at his detractors. “You can see that I’m mentally incompetent, I can’t walk. And I could beat the hell out of both of them,” he told reporters, jabbing at Tapper and Thompson. Vintage Biden: part jest, part jab, all defiance.
His team insists there’s no conspiracy, no decline. The spokesperson’s statement doubled down: “Joe Biden was an effective President who led our country with empathy and skill.” But when leaked tapes show you stumbling over words, empathy alone doesn’t quiet the skeptics.
Biden’s Memorial Day speech focused on the military’s sacrifice, calling them “the spine of our nation.”
He noted, “Only around 1% of all Americans defend 99% of us.” It’s a poignant reminder, but critics argue his mental sharpness matters when leading that 1%.
Biden’s cancer fight adds a human layer to the saga. Diagnosed just weeks before the event, he’s tackling an aggressive form of prostate cancer with medication. His upbeat “we’re going to beat this” vibe is admirable, but it’s hard to ignore the timing of these health and mental decline stories colliding.
The Tapper-Thompson book doesn’t just question Biden’s faculties—it alleges a deliberate effort to mask them. Claims of scripted meetings and incoherent ad takes suggest a team more focused on optics than transparency. Conservatives see this as par for the course in a woke-obsessed D.C.
Biden’s spokesperson pushed back hard, arguing the book fails to show any national security lapses or presidential disengagement.
“Nowhere do they show that our national security was threatened,” they said. Fair point, but dodging the decline question with resume highlights feels like misdirection.
That 2023 Hur interview audio is a gut punch. Biden’s struggle to articulate and recall key details—like his son’s death—lends credence to the decline narrative. It’s not just one book; multiple 2025 releases echo the same theme, making it harder for Biden’s team to wave off.
