Joe Biden Says Late Son Beau ‘Should Have Been the President, Not Me’ in Speech Calling Out Donald Trump

Joe Biden said his late son, Beau Biden, “should have been the president” instead of him while speaking at the Nebraska Democratic Party’s annual Ben Nelson Gala on Friday, Nov. 7.

Addressing the crowd in Omaha, the former president, 82, criticized President Donald Trump for the ongoing government shutdown and for cutting healthcare funding — a deeply personal topic for Biden’s family.

Having completed radiation treatments for prostate cancer last month, Biden grew emotional as he reflected on his late son, Beau, who died in 2015 at age 46 from brain cancer.

“Folks, I know what cancer research means. Cancer hits every family. It hit my family hard, just as so many of yours,” Biden said, according to footage of his speech shared by outlet APT.

He continued, “When the love of my life, my oldest son, the attorney general of the state of Delaware — who should have been the president, not me — volunteered to go to Iraq for a year, he didn’t have to. He came back with stage 4 glioblastoma because he lived near the burn pit, just like those guys in 9/11, and he died. I remember him calling me aside.”

Before recounting what Beau told him in his final days, Biden paused and added, “I shouldn’t probably say this, but … when he died, I lost part of my soul.”

“He asked to meet with me in his room, the hospital room,” Biden recalled. “And he said, ‘Dad, look at me.’ We have this screwy thing, we Bidens. When we want to make sure what we really mean, we say, ‘Give me your word as a Biden.’ ”

“He said, ‘Dad, look at me. Look at me. I know what you’re going to do, Dad. When I go, you’re going to quit. You’re not going to want to be engaged. But look at me, Dad. Promise me. Give me your word as a Biden. You’ll stay involved. Give me your word.’ And I did,” Biden continued.

The emotional memory of Beau — and Biden’s quiet comment that his late son “should have been the president, not me” — came as he criticized Trump, 79, and “his Republican friends” for “cutting government funding for healthcare.”

Beau Biden served as a federal prosecutor before being elected Delaware’s attorney general in 2006, later winning reelection in 2010. He joined the Delaware Army National Guard in 2003 and served as a major in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. In 2008, his unit was deployed to Iraq, where he served on active duty until September 2009.

During his Nebraska address, Joe Biden also called on the president to “get the damn government open,” referencing the ongoing shutdown — now the longest in U.S. history. Millions of Americans are receiving reduced or delayed food benefits, healthcare subsidies are set to lapse, and hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed or are working without pay.

“By the way, do you know how many government shutdowns we had when I was president? None,” Biden said to applause from the audience.

Biden first announced his diagnosis with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones in May. In September, he also underwent Mohs surgery, a procedure used to treat skin cancer, according to his office.

He previously recalled Beau’s dying wish for his father to “stay engaged” during a 2022 speech on what would have been Beau’s 53rd birthday. The title of Biden’s 2017 memoir, Promise Me, Dad, was inspired by those final conversations between father and son.