President Joe Biden raised eyebrows earlier this week when, during a speech at the White House, he appeared to suggest that his administration had succeeded in curing cancer, but it now appears that the official transcript of his statement has been altered to hide the gaffe, as Breitbart reports.
The controversy began when, as part of an address on bolstering mental health care access, Biden made an assertion about cancer that caught observers quite by surprise, as Fox News noted.
“One of the things I'm always asked is why Americans have sort of lost faith for a while in being able to do big things,” the president began.
Biden went on, “If you could do anything at all Joe, what would you do? I said I'd cure cancer. They looked at me like, why cancer? Because no one things we can. That's why, and we can.”
Then, the commander in chief uttered a sentence that likely came as a shock to physicians and patients everywhere, declaring in reference to his “Cancer Moonshot” effort, “We ended cancer as we know it.” WATCH:
Biden: "I said I'd cure cancer they looked at me like, why cancer? Because we can. We ended cancer as we know it." pic.twitter.com/RI5JqxyG3A
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 25, 2023
Not surprisingly, the statement swiftly garnered scorn and skepticism from a range of commentators, with Greg Price, communications director for the State Freedom Caucus Network tweeting, “The dementia is so bad that now he thinks he cured cancer.”
Conservative commentator Rogan O'Handley remarked, “Biden just announced that he's cured cancer. Yes, he seriously did. We are an international joke.”
Journalist Glenn Greenwald sarcastically opined, “It's a sign of how bitter and polarized our politics are that there's so little gratitude toward Biden for having cured cancer or at least ended cancer as we know it. Some things should transcend partisanship, and a president having cured cancer should be one of them.”
The mockery that followed the president's statement may be the reason why the official White House transcript of his remarks reads differently from what so many observers seem to have heard him say.
According to the transcript, Biden said (emphasis added), “'Why cancer?' Because no one thinks we can. That's why. And we can. We can end cancer as we know it.”
Though most people can forgive the octogenarian leader for the occasional misstatement or mental misfire requiring an official correction of the record, a recent review conducted by the Daily Wire revealed that the White House has gone to significant – and frequent – lengths to alter transcripts to disguise the severity of Biden's difficulties.
The outlet identified numerous examples of artful edits presumably employed to clarify what the president presumably intended – but failed – to convey.
Whether by inserting a “[sic]” to add clarification, a full correction set apart in brackets, a text strike-through mark, or by simply excising certain portion of the president's commentary, the White House appears determined to mitigate the growing perception among the electorate that Biden no longer possesses the cognitive fitness to serve.
