Former VP Joe Biden consoles Meghan McCain over father’s cancer diagnosis
Dec 13, 2017, 1:54 PM | Updated: Mar 1, 2018, 3:32 pm
PHOENIX — Former Vice President Joe Biden had some kind words on Wednesday for Meghan McCain, whose father, Sen. John McCain, was diagnosed with brain cancer this year.
“There’s a lot of hope here,” Biden told Meghan McCain during an appearance on “The View.”
Meghan McCain asked Biden about his late son, Beau, who died two years ago after being diagnosed with glioblastoma, the same aggressive brain cancer her father is fighting.
“I think about Beau almost every day and I was told that this doesn’t get easier but that you cultivate the tools to work with this and live with this,” Meghan McCain said, her voice breaking. “I know you and your family have been through tragedy I couldn’t conceive of.”
When Meghan McCain became upset, Biden moved across the stage to hold her hand and told her his son took inspiration in his fight from her father.
“One of the things that gave Beau courage … was John,” Biden said. “Your dad — you may remember when you were a little kid — your dad took care of my Beau. Your dad … became friends with Beau and Beau talked about your dad’s courage. Not about illness, but about courage.”
Biden also said John McCain is a fighter.
“If anybody can make it, your dad (can),” he said.
The former vice president then went on to tell Meghan McCain that cancer breakthroughs happen all the time and he hoped science would eventually outrun the illness.
“We are going to beat this damn disease,” he said.
Biden described the longtime senator as his best friend and someone who would always be there for him.
“I know, if I picked up the phone tonight and called John McCain, and said, ‘John, I’m at Second and Vine in Oshkosh and I need your help, come.’ He’d get on a plane and come,” Biden said. “I would (do the same) for him too.”
The former vice president presented John McCain with the Liberty Medal in October for his lifetime of service to the country.
In his acceptance speech, John McCain admitted he and Biden didn’t always see eye-to-eye, but he had great respect for him.
John McCain said they believed in “each other’s patriotism, “the institution we were privileged to serve,” “our mutual responsibility to help make the place work” and “our country’s indispensability to international peace and stability and to the progress of humanity.”
Meghan McCain thanked Biden later, tweeting she had no words to convey her “immense gratitude.”
“Your strength, hope and fortitude are an inspiration to me and so many others daily,” she wrote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
