This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/31/beau-biden-dies-of-brain-cancer
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Beau Biden, son of US vice-president Joe Biden, dies of brain cancer | Beau Biden, son of US vice-president Joe Biden, dies of brain cancer |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The US vice-president, Joe Biden, announced on Saturday that his son Beau had died of brain cancer. | The US vice-president, Joe Biden, announced on Saturday that his son Beau had died of brain cancer. |
| “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,” said a statement from Joe Biden released by the White House said. | |
| 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 vice president said in a statement late Saturday. | |
| The family was at Beau Biden’s side when he died, the vice-president said. | |
| Beau Biden, 46, was a former Delaware attorney general. He was first diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2013. He underwent surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston to remove a lesion. That was followed by radiation treatment and chemotherapy, and Beau Biden’s doctor gave him a clean bill of health three months later, in November, officials said. | |
| He announced last year that he would not seek a third term as attorney general and instead planned to run for governor in 2016. He suffered a recurrence of illness this spring and was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in May, officials said. | |
| After eight years as attorney general Beau Biden joined the investor law firm Grant & Eisenhofer in 2015. | After eight years as attorney general Beau Biden joined the investor law firm Grant & Eisenhofer in 2015. |
| My thoughts & prayers are w Vice President Biden @VP, Dr. Jill Biden @DrBiden & the entire Biden family on the tragic passing of Beau Biden | My thoughts & prayers are w Vice President Biden @VP, Dr. Jill Biden @DrBiden & the entire Biden family on the tragic passing of Beau Biden |
| He previously served a year-long tour in Iraq as a captain in the Delaware national guard and underwent surgery at a cancer center in Texas last year. He had a mild stroke in 2010. | He previously served a year-long tour in Iraq as a captain in the Delaware national guard and underwent surgery at a cancer center in Texas last year. He had a mild stroke in 2010. |
| The vice-president continued: “More than his professional accomplishments, Beau measured himself as a husband, father, son and brother. | |
| 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. | |
| Barack Obama released a statement praising Beau Biden soon after the news was announced. | |
| Michelle and I are grieving tonight. Beau Biden was a friend of ours. His beloved family – Hallie, Natalie, and Hunter – are friends of ours. And Joe and Jill Biden are as good as friends get. | Michelle and I are grieving tonight. Beau Biden was a friend of ours. His beloved family – Hallie, Natalie, and Hunter – are friends of ours. And Joe and Jill Biden are as good as friends get. |
| Beau took after Joe. He studied the law, like his dad, even choosing the same law school. He chased a life of public service, like his dad, serving in Iraq and as Delaware’s Attorney General. Like his dad, Beau was a good, big-hearted, devoutly Catholic and deeply faithful man, who made a difference in the lives of all he touched – and he lives on in their hearts. | Beau took after Joe. He studied the law, like his dad, even choosing the same law school. He chased a life of public service, like his dad, serving in Iraq and as Delaware’s Attorney General. Like his dad, Beau was a good, big-hearted, devoutly Catholic and deeply faithful man, who made a difference in the lives of all he touched – and he lives on in their hearts. |
| But for all that Beau Biden achieved in his life, nothing made him prouder; nothing made him happier; nothing claimed a fuller focus of his love and devotion than his family. | But for all that Beau Biden achieved in his life, nothing made him prouder; nothing made him happier; nothing claimed a fuller focus of his love and devotion than his family. |
| Just like his dad. | Just like his dad. |
| Joe is one of the strongest men we’ve ever known. He’s as strong as they come, and nothing matters to him more than family. It’s one of the things we love about him. And it is a testament to Joe and Jill – to who they are – that Beau lived a life that was full; a life that mattered; a life that reflected their reverence for family. | Joe is one of the strongest men we’ve ever known. He’s as strong as they come, and nothing matters to him more than family. It’s one of the things we love about him. And it is a testament to Joe and Jill – to who they are – that Beau lived a life that was full; a life that mattered; a life that reflected their reverence for family. |
| The Bidens have more family than they know. In the Delaware they love. In the Senate Joe reveres. Across this country that he has served for more than forty years. And they have a family right here in the White House, where hundreds of hearts ache tonight – for Hallie, Natalie, and Hunter; for Joe and for Jill; for Beau’s brother, Hunter; his sister, Ashley, and for the entire Biden clan. | The Bidens have more family than they know. In the Delaware they love. In the Senate Joe reveres. Across this country that he has served for more than forty years. And they have a family right here in the White House, where hundreds of hearts ache tonight – for Hallie, Natalie, and Hunter; for Joe and for Jill; for Beau’s brother, Hunter; his sister, Ashley, and for the entire Biden clan. |
| “I have believed the best of every man,” wrote the poet William Butler Yeats, “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.” | “I have believed the best of every man,” wrote the poet William Butler Yeats, “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. For him, and for his family, we swing our lanterns higher. | Beau Biden believed the best of us all. For him, and for his family, we swing our lanterns higher. |
| Michelle and I humbly pray for the good Lord to watch over Beau Biden, and to protect and comfort his family here on Earth. | Michelle and I humbly pray for the good Lord to watch over Beau Biden, and to protect and comfort his family here on Earth. |
| A University of Pennsylvania graduate, Beau Biden earned a law degree from Syracuse University. He was a law clerk for a federal judge in New Hampshire before joining the US justice department from 1995 until 2002, including five years as a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia. | |
| In 2001 he volunteered for an interim assignment helping to train judges and prosecutors in postwar Kosovo. | |
| With his father, then Delaware’s senior US senator, at his side in 2006, Joseph R “Beau” Biden III launched his campaign for attorney general. He promised to reorganize the state’s justice department to better combat identity theft, internet stalking by pedophiles, street crime and abuse of the elderly. | |
| During the campaign Biden sidestepped questions about his ultimate political ambitions. “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 US Senate. | |
| Beau Biden remained cautious about discussing his long-range plans after suffering the stroke in 2010. “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. For Biden that initial health scare was a reminder to balance his job with family time advice he encouraged others to follow. | |
| “It’s kind of reinforced how I’ve operated my life,” he said at the time. | |
| Politically astute, photogenic and backed by his father’s political machine, Biden was elected attorney general in 2006 with 52.6% of the vote. “He’s supped at this table since he’s been 3 years old,” Biden’s beaming father said in celebrating the election of his son, who was a toddler when his father was elected to the Senate. | |
| 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, putting him at odds with some fellow Democrats. | |
| But a spate of shootings in Biden’s hometown of Wilmington went largely unabated during his tenure, and his office stumbled in some high-profile murder prosecutions. 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. | |
| The younger Biden’s decision 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 coasted to re-election in 2010 after Republicans declined to field a candidate against him. | |
| Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report |