Immediately after President Joe Biden accidentally revealed a previously unknown detail about former President Jimmy Carter’s health near the end of a speech Monday night, before admitting that he “shouldn’t have said that.”
Carter, whose health is declining and has been placed in hospice at his home, instructed Biden to deliver his eulogy, the president revealed at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Rancho Santa Fe, California.
“He asked me to do his eulogy — excuse me, I’m not allowed to say that,” Biden noted. “I spent time with Jimmy Carter and it finally caught up with him. But they found a way to keep him going for much longer than they expected because they found a breakthrough.”
He also suggested that the former president’s cancer had returned. These comments were not recorded because video was not allowed.
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Joe Biden and former President Jimmy Carter at the Pepsi Center on August 26, 2008 in Denver, Colorado. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The comments came as Biden discussed breakthroughs in cancer treatment and urged the dozens of people in the room to spend more money on the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an initiative Biden launched last year to increase the ability from the government to speed up biomedical and health research.
Last year, Biden introduced ARPA-H as an initiative that will “pursue ideas that deviate from how we normally support basic research and commercial products in this country.”
It would “pursue ideas so daring that no one else, not even the private sector, is willing to give them a chance or put a lot of money into solving them,” he said at the time, according to his website.
Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter accepts Senator Joseph Biden’s endorsement D-Del at a press conference at the Sheraton Hotel in Madison. (Getty Images)
Joseph Biden, U.S. Senator from Delaware, points out a friend in the crowd at Padua Academy to President Jimmy Carter during a fundraiser. (Getty Images)
On Monday, Biden also commented on the state of democracy in the US and the results of the 2022 midterm elections.
“I think the American public has moved to a place where they’re genuinely concerned about our democracy,” said Biden, who said it was “not a joke. It’s not an exaggeration.”
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And he pointed to the polarization in cable news, saying, “People tune in to what they want to hear.”
“If you’re moderate to liberal, you want to watch an MSNBC, that’s what you watch on cable. Conservatives turn to Fox News,” Biden said.
The president then moved to cooperation, saying his administration has cooperated with congressional Republicans and would continue to do so with the Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
“We were told we couldn’t pass anything bipartisan, but guess what? We’ve passed more major bipartisan legislation than anyone in the recent past,” he said.
Biden and Carter previously worked together when Carter was president. Biden was a U.S. Senator at the time. The two also helped each other’s respective campaigns.
President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak participate in the AUKUS Summit on March 13, 2023 in San Diego, California. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Earlier in the day, Biden flew to San Diego and appeared alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for an AUKUS summit — an acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
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He gave an address outside Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, where he was flanked by two submarines, the USS Missouri and the USS Charlotte, tied to the pier behind him.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, left, US President Joe Biden, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, right, at a press conference during the AUKUS Summit on March 13, 2023 in San Diego, California. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
During his speech, Biden jokingly asked if, as president, he could instruct the sailors on the Missouri to feel comfortable. The incident sparked some discussion on social media.
The president went on to say that the trilateral partnership would give Australia access to nuclear-powered submarines, which are “nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed,” he clarified.
“These boats will not carry any form of nuclear weapons,” the president said.
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President Biden receives British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in San Diego for an AUKUS meeting. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Sunak later called AUKUS “the most important multilateral defense partnership for generations”.
Fox News’ Aliah Walls contributed to this report