Former President Joe Biden on Friday attended his grandson's high school graduation, marking his first public appearance since he announced last weekend that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
In photos posted on Instagram by former first lady Jill Biden and the former president’s daughter Ashley Biden, Joe Biden appeared alongside other family members to celebrate the high school graduation of Robert Hunter Biden II from the Salisbury School in Salisbury, Connecticut.
One of the photos posted by Jill Biden included the caption, “Proud Nana and Pop! Congratulations Hunter — we are so proud of you.”
In photos Ashley Biden posted later Friday, it appeared that the former president was also spotted at the airport, though it is unclear which airport that was.
Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, with his personal office saying in a statement, “Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.”
On Tuesday, his office released a second statement, adding that he had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer prior to last week. The statement also clarified that the former president had not been tested for prostate cancer in over a decade.
Biden’s cancer diagnosis reignited debate among Democrats over the former president’s age and health, particularly as his diagnosis was announced close to the release of a new book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson that examined Biden’s health and cognitive abilities during the 2024 presidential campaign.
Biden and his family have repeatedly defended the former president from allegations that his cognitive or physical health was deteriorating while he was in office.
His granddaughter Naomi Biden wrote in a post on X this week that the book was “a bunch of unoriginal, uninspired lies written by irresponsible self promoting journalists out to make a quick buck.”
The book “relies on unnamed, anonymous sources pushing a self-serving false narrative that absolves them of any responsibility for our current national nightmare,” she added. “All of this at the expense of a man so completely good and honest that it is impossible for these people to ever understand the why or how of it all. There are real stories to be told and one day they will be. I suspect history will reward the truth.”
