Former U.S. President Joe Biden attended his nephew’s high school graduation ceremony on Friday. It was his first public appearance since announcing he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, NBC News reports.
In photos posted on Instagram by former First Lady Jill Biden and the daughter of the former president, Ashley Biden, the former president and first lady are seen alongside other family members celebrating the high school graduation of Robert Hunter Biden II from Salisbury School in Salisbury, Connecticut.
One of the photos posted by Jill Biden included the caption: "Nana and Pop proud! Congratulations Hunter - we are so proud of you."
In photos posted by Ashley Biden later on Friday, the former president is seen at an airport, although it is not clear which airport he was photographed at.
Joe Biden announced last Sunday that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, his personal office stated in a release: "Last week, President Joe Biden underwent a consultation following a new discovery of a prostate nodule, as a result of intensified urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (grade group 5) with bone metastases."
On Tuesday, his office released a second statement, adding that Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer before last week. The statement also noted that the former president had not been tested for prostate cancer in over a decade.
Biden's cancer diagnosis has reignited debate among Democrats about the former president's age and health, especially as his diagnosis was announced in the context of the release of a new book by Jake Tapper from CNN and Alex Thompson from Axios, examining Biden's health and cognitive abilities during the 2024 presidential campaign.
Biden and his family have repeatedly defended the former president against accusations that his cognitive or physical health had deteriorated while in office.
His niece, Naomi Biden, wrote in a post on X this week that this book is "a bunch of unoriginal and uninspired lies, written by irresponsible journalists promoting themselves to make a quick buck."
The book "relies on anonymous, unnamed sources promoting a self-interested false narrative that absolves them of any responsibility for our current national nightmare," she added. "All at the expense of a man so completely good and honest that it is impossible for these people to ever understand why or how it all happened. There are true stories that need to be told and one day they will be told. I suspect history will reward the truth."