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Joe Biden repeats statement that son Beau died in Iraq as supporters say he's right, cite burn pit theory

During a speech at Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Tuesday, November 1, President Joe Biden said yet again that his son Beau Biden died in Iraq

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA: During a speech at Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Tuesday, November 1, President Joe Biden said yet again that his son Beau Biden died in Iraq. He also caught himself calling the war in Ukraine the Iraq war. "Inflation is a worldwide problem right now," he said. "There's a war in Iraq and the impact on oil and what Russia's doing. Excuse me, the war in Ukraine."

"I'm thinking Iraq, because that's where my son died - because he died," he then went on to explain. Beau served as Delaware's attorney general and in the Delaware Army National Guard in the Iraq War. He died aged 46 in 2015 from brain cancer at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. 

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For long, Biden has linked his service, along with the military's use of burn pits, to Beau's brain cancer diagnosis. "In my view, I can't prove it yet, he came back with stage 4 glioblastoma. Eighteen months he lived, knowing he was going to die," Biden said in 2019. 

While speaking at Camp Hale in Colorado last month, Biden suggested that Beau died in Iraq. "Just imagine - I mean it sincerely - I say this as a father of a man who won the Bronze Star, the Conspicuous Service Medal, and lost his life in Iraq. Imagine the courage, the daring, and the genuine sacrifice - genuine sacrifice they all made," he said at the time. 

While many on social media have slammed Biden for apparently disrespecting families that have actually lost their loved ones to the war in Iraq, some have defended him, saying he is technically right because Beau died as a result of cancer developed from exposure to burn pits. "No lie at all. He's talking about his belief (and the belief of many) that his son was killed b/c of the burn pits in Iraq. To spell it out for you AGAIN, many believe the burn pits in Iraq caused terminal cancer in the soldiers who were exposed to them," one user wrote on Twitter. "He means his son likely caught the cancer that killed him from toxic pits. He’s made this clear. You just fail to give him any benefit of the doubt because you’re a bad faith hack," said another. One user wrote, "To be fair he says at the end: “Because he died.” As in its the reason for the cancer. Doesn’t excuse all the other times he’s lied outright about it. But this might be as honest as he gets."

"He’s been vocal about attributing burn pits in the Iraq War as the likely catalyst for Beau’s cancer," one user said, while another wrote, "I agree, and i empathize with him. I too got a terminal cancer after having served in Iraq. However, they are not putting my cancer MM on the list. The VA turned me down. I wish he would emphasize with all of us. I lived a very healthy lifestyle. Non of my 9 siblings have cancer."

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