Photo (AP) – Beau Biden Feb. 2013 Speaking at News Conference as Attorney General
By Marion Algier – Ask Marion
Former Attorney General Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III “Beau” Biden, the son of Vice President Joe Biden. lost his battle with Brain Cancer today, May 30th, 2015, at age 46. The information was verified by the White House.
“It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life,” the statement from Vice President Biden’s office said.
“The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words. We know that Beau’s spirit will live on in all of us-especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter,” the statement went on to say.
Beau Biden and his father were very close.
See text of his speech at Democratic Covention introducing father Joe Biden.
President Obama said he and the first lady were grieving alongside the Biden family.
“Michelle and I humbly pray for the good Lord to watch over Beau Biden, and to protect and comfort his family here on Earth,” Obama said in a statement released late Saturday.
President Obama, in written a statement, quoted Irish poet William Butler Yeats — a favorite of the vice president’s — in honoring Beau Biden’s life.
Yeats wrote, “I have believed the best of every man. And find that to believe it is enough to make a bad man show him at his best or even a good man swing his lantern higher.”
“Beau Biden believed the best of us all,” Obama said. “For him, and for his family, we swing our lanterns higher.”
Beau Biden was a lawyer, member of the Delaware National Guard and former Delaware attorney general. The vice president said he dedicated his life to those professions.
“More than his professional accomplishments, Beau measured himself as a husband, father, son and brother,” said Joe Biden, who was at his son’s side at the time of his death, along with the rest of the Biden family. “His absolute honor made him a role model for our family. Beau embodied my father’s saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did.”
“In the words of the Biden family: Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known,” added the vice president.
Beau Biden was hospitalized earlier this month at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center; at the time the vice president’s office declined to elaborate.
The younger Biden suffered a mild stroke in 2010 and underwent surgery at a Texas cancer center in 2013 to remove what was described as a small lesion.
Then he announced last year that he would not seek a third term as attorney general and instead planned to run for governor in 2016.
Former Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential contender Martin O’Malley said his family was saddened by the loss.
“Katie and I are deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Beau Biden. He served his country and the people of Delaware with great honor. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Biden family in this moment of great loss.”
Hillary Clinton tweeted her sympathies Saturday night:
My heart is broken for the family of Beau Biden—a wonderful man who served his country with devotion and lived his life with courage. -H
Senator James Langford (R-OK) released a statement expressing his remorse.
“I’m incredibly saddened to hear of the death of Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Beau Biden,” the statement said. “Our entire nation mourns with the Biden family and the White House during this difficult time. Vice President Biden has endured incredible tragedies during his lifetime. Cindy and I pray for the Biden family, Beau’s widow, Natalie, and their two children.”
Beau was first diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2013 after which he underwent surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston to remove a lesion, followed by radiation treatment and chemotherapy. His doctor gave him a clean bill of health just three months later, in November, officials said.
After suffering a recurrence, Biden was admitted to Walter Reed in May. He then suffered a recurrence this spring and was admitted to Walter Reed in May, officials said.
Biden earned a law degree from Syracuse University after graduating from the University of Philadelphia. He was a law clerk for a federal judge in New Hampshire before joining in the Justice Department from 1995 to 2012, including five years as a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia.
In 2001, Beau volunteered for an interim assignment helping to train judges and prosecutors in postwar Kosovo.
Then in 2006, Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III, with his father, Joe Biden, then Delaware’s senior U.S. senator, at his side, launched his campaign for attorney general. He promised to reorganize the state Department of Justice to better combat identity theft, Internet stalking by pedophiles, street crime and abuse of the elderly.
“Sometimes, it’s not good to look too far down the road,” said Biden, who was critically injured along with his brother in a 1972 car crash that killed their mother and infant sister. The accident happened just weeks after his father was elected to the U.S. Senate.
After suffering the stroke in 2010, Beau Biden remained cautious about discussing his plans for the future.
“Having long-term dreams is a good thing … but having a plan has never worked for me, because life always intervenes,” he told The Associated Press months later.
That initial health scare seemingly was a reminder to balance his job with family time — advice Beau encouraged others to follow.
“It’s kind of reinforced how I’ve operated my life,” he said at the time.
Beau Biden was elected attorney general in 2006 with 52.6 percent of the vote.
“He’s supped at this table since he’s been 3 years old,” Joe Biden said in celebrating the election of his son, who was a toddler when his father was elected to the Senate.
During his time as attorney general, Biden established a child predator unit, joined other attorneys general in taking on mortgage lenders over foreclosure abuses, proposed tougher bail restrictions for criminal defendants and defended the death penalty.
His office stumbled in some high-profile murder prosecutions and a flood of shootings in Biden’s hometown of Wilmington also went largely unresolved during his tenure. Biden also faced scrutiny over how his office handled the case of Earl Bradley, a pediatrician who sexually assaulted scores of young patients over more than a decade before being arrested in December 2009.
Biden cited his focus on the Bradley case in announcing in January 2010 that he would not run for the Senate seat that his father vacated after he was elected vice president in 2008, a decision that stunned political observers, including many fellow Democrats, who thought Joe Biden’s former chief of staff, Ted Kaufman, had been appointed to the Senate on an interim basis to keep the seat warm for the son. A fellow Democrat, New Castle County executive Chris Coons, won the seat after former Republican governor and longtime congressman Mike Castle was upset by tea party-backed Christine O’Donnell in the GOP primary.
“I have no regrets,” Biden said after O’Donnell’s stunning primary victory scrambled the political calculus surrounding the Senate seat.
Biden was re-election in 2010 after Republicans declined to field a candidate against him?!?
We certainly send our condolences to the Biden family, but as a Cancer sufferer I would have appreciated more openness with the public about Beau’s experience and journey with that dreadful disease now that it is expected to effect 1 in 3 Americans alive today. Communication and common understanding are missing pieces in the fight against Cancer, a fight we are losing when you look at the stats.
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