Politics
Biden has yet to speak with some longtime congressional allies post cancer diagnosis
Twenty-four hours after the Sunday announcement that former President Joe Biden has an aggressive form of prostate cancer, one of his staunchest supporters, Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, said Monday he had yet to connect with him. Another close Hill ally, Sen. Chris Coons, had not spoken with his fellow Delawarean as of midafternoon Tuesday.
Biden’s longtime friend Bob Brady, the former House member from Pennsylvania who has known Biden for decades, said as of Tuesday afternoon that he hadn’t talked with the former president directly since his cancer diagnosis, though he did touch base Monday with his family. All three said they planned to speak with him soon.
Before his cancer diagnosis, Biden had been taking the train from Delaware to Washington, meeting with his post-presidential staff, allies and former Cabinet secretaries, according to a Biden aide granted anonymity to speak freely. In New York City for his appearance on “The View,” he met with former President Bill Clinton. And last week he met with Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a rising star in the party.
But Biden, an inveterate creature of Washington who for most of his career seemed to gain life from glad-handing and working a room, hasn’t yet talked to some longtime allies on Capitol Hill in the wake of his diagnosis. Months removed from his presidency, Biden has receded as a fixture of official Washington and has instead become a focal point of his party’s recriminations — his planned reemergence after departing the White House running headlong into a devastating health diagnosis and an unsettled party growing increasingly anxious in the wilderness.
Some Democrats said they are drafting notes or plan to speak with him. Coons said he was working on finding a time to connect with Biden. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware said she has reached out to people ”very close” to the family “and just shared my love, my prayers.” Politicians on both sides of the aisle wished him well.
Most Democrats are trying, yet again, to pivot from Biden’s health to stay on message as the GOP advances President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.
Rep. Gabe Amo of Rhode Island, the only former Biden White House aide who now serves in Congress, faulted Biden’s critics for capitalizing on what he called the “politics of the moment.”
“It’s in their interest to talk about this rather than the issues of the day, so we’re stuck in that unfortunate reality,” Amo said. “I hope that people are focused on one, a legacy of public service, and two, wishing him well in his recovery.”
Or as Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas, a Biden reelection co-chair, put it, “We are living through a historic, terrifying backsliding of our democracy … I am so profoundly uninterested in talking about this issue.”
Not everyone wants to change the subject. Some Democrats, perhaps feeling burned by how Biden’s decline was kept out of public view, are asking pointed questions about his cancer diagnosis — both publicly and privately.
On Monday, Ezekiel Emanuel, the oncologist and Biden’s former pandemic adviser, opened the door on MSNBC’s Biden-friendly “Morning Joe” to a round of questions about Biden’s health when he said that Biden “did not develop [cancer] in the last 100, 200 days. He had it while he was president. He probably had it at the start of his presidency in 2021.”
At best for Democrats, his remarks scanned to some observers as concern about the care the president received while in office. At worst, they fueled more accusations of a White House cover-up.
In a Monday interview, Emanuel said he could not rule out the possibility that Biden had been diagnosed earlier but that information somehow wasn’t released.
“Look, I’m not his doctor,” Emanuel said. “I can’t rule out that possibility because I don’t know what transpired there.”
A spokesperson for Biden said Tuesday the former president’s “last known” prostate-specific antigen cancer screening test was in 2014 and that “prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer.”
This isn’t the first time Biden has faced health challenges. When he was running for vice president in 2008, Biden disclosed that he had an enlarged prostate and a biopsy but that no evidence of cancer was found. His medical records also showed he had undergone prostate-specific antigen tests, which yielded normal results.
More than a decade later, when he was campaigning for the White House in 2019, Biden revealed he had been treated for his enlarged prostate, first with medication and later with surgery. The files stated he “never had prostate cancer.”
Trump seized on questions surrounding the timeline of diagnosis — something that had quickly become an obsession of Biden’s right-wing detractors online — telling reporters he was “surprised that it wasn’t, you know, the public wasn’t notified a long time ago because to get to stage 9, that’s a long time.” (Biden’s diagnosis is stage-four prostate cancer.) Vice President JD Vance said he blamed the “people around” Biden.
Asked about new allegations of a conspiracy to keep Biden’s illness secret, Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said of Republicans advancing the idea, “What a soulless bunch. Anybody who’s spending time doing that, I’ll pray for him in mass this Sunday.”
To some allies of Biden, who relied on a small and, critics said, insular circle of advisers during his presidency, even acknowledging such questions is fraught.
“This just feeds into the conspiracy theories. You have an electorate who doesn’t pay attention, and this is breaking through,” said Democratic strategist Kellan White, who worked as a senior adviser to Biden’s campaign in Pennsylvania in 2024. “All a Gen Z voter who barely pays attention is hearing is, ‘They weekend-at-Bernie-ed Joe Biden who now has cancer, which he probably had for 10 years.’”
Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who’s long been close to the Bidens, said in a brief interview she’d sent a message to the former president through his team and “and expressed that I was praying for him and reiterated that he’s in the hearts of every Delawarean right now.”
She said she’d spoken to him last at a St. Patrick’s Day event in Wilmington and “he seemed in good spirits. He seemed healthy.”
Biden’s diagnosis came just as some of the Democratic Party’s brightest stars had begun to grapple with questions about ramifications of his decision to run for reelection — and the fallout for the party.
“The historians will have to sort out the politics of the whole thing,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who weathered his own cancer diagnosis, said in an interview.
He added that he had not spoken to Biden but was drafting him a note. He said, “But at this point, there’s nothing to do, but for those of us who love the guy, to express our solidarity and our sympathy.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro is quickly becoming the prospective 2028 presidential campaign field’s biggest World Cup fan.
On Monday, the Pennsylvania governor and potential presidential candidate is set to attend his second match of the tournament when he is in the stands at Lincoln Financial Field to see Iraq play France in Philadelphia, according to a spokesperson. He also attended Ivory Coast vs. Ecuador there a week ago with his wife Lori. Shapiro is also expected to hit the FIFA Fan Festival before the match.
Shapiro joins a growing list of 2028 hopefuls to take in the tournament. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, attended the U.S. opener against Paraguay. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attended the American squad’s match against Australia. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who hasn’t actively made moves toward a campaign but has carved out a leadership role in the party, attended the France vs. Senegal game at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
A number of potential 2028 candidates in states hosting games have not yet made the pilgrimage to a game: Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) hasn’t partaken of an East Rutherford match. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, for example, have not attended matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta (Ossoff has said he has no interest in running for president), nor has Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) hasn’t taken in a match at either AT&T Stadium in Arlington or NRG Stadium in Houston.
Shapiro is known on local sports radio as “Josh in Abington,” and is a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles and 76ers. That fandom could help him build stronger relationships with voters. Philadelphia’s fan zone has drawn significant crowds.
Shapiro has also used host status to distribute 700 free tickets to Philadelphia community organizations. He said it was “really important” to him that it would happen when he landed matches.
“Governor Shapiro believes the FIFA World Cup is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that should benefit all Pennsylvanians,” his office said in a press release earlier this month, and “he is working to make the matches free and accessible to as many people as possible.”
The tickets are also an economic development tool: “As part of Visit PA’s sponsorship of Philadelphia Soccer 2026, the Commonwealth gains access to a mix of suite, VIP, and general admission tickets, which are being used to host business leaders, prospective partners, and other guests to further strengthen Pennsylvania’s economic development and promote the Commonwealth as the best place to visit, live, and do business,” a Shapiro spokesperson said.
More broadly, the politics of attending a FIFA World Cup game are tricky, says Eric Koch, a soccer fan and Democratic consultant based in New York City.
“In fairness the ticket prices are insane and the U.S. matches have all been on the West Coast so it’s hard for anyone to get out there — and AOC has been (rightfully!) basking in the Knicks win,” Koch said. “The U.S. loves a winner and this squad is not only super talented but is also on the cusp of really capturing the hearts of the whole country as we go to the knockout rounds so I expect we will see more candidates embracing them. It’s going to be a great unifying thing to rally behind.”
For Democrats in particular, embracing the World Cup could help them with two political projects, Koch said: embracing some kind of patriotism and relating more with voters, but it has to be an authentic effort.
“As with all things in politics, if it’s not authentic to you and what you’re about, it’s going to seem fake and forced and this applies extra to sports, which people have actual deep connections to,” Koch said. “The good thing is the USMNT can be everyone’s team and as the hype train builds I think we will see more pols embracing them.”
President Donald Trump’s fingerprints are all over this World Cup — even the stadium gift shops, trade editor Emily Cadei writes in.
Granted, few of the customers that are mobbing official FIFA merch stores are examining the provenance of their $100+ jerseys or $50 baseball caps. But those “Made in” tags tell a story of how trade flows have shifted since Trump was first elected to the White House.
The jerseys? Made in Thailand. The scarves? Made in Vietnam. The special edition soccer ball displaying the names of the North American host cities? Made in Indonesia. (None of those countries, notably, are in the World Cup themselves, with only Indonesia even coming close to qualifying.)
They are part of a surge in imports the United States has seen from Southeast Asia in recent years, as Trump ratcheted up tariffs on neighboring China and as Chinese labor became more expensive, relative to other countries in the region. Vietnam has been a particular beneficiary of the shift, with its goods exports to the U.S. jumping 42 percent in 2025, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
The same is true, but on a smaller scale, for Thailand and Indonesia.
Imports from those countries have continued to climb in 2026, even after the Supreme Court in February struck down Trump’s steepest tariffs on China, making their exports, in theory, a little cheaper. But the ruling did not affect tariffs Trump levied on more than $300 billion worth of Chinese goods during his first term.
The Trump administration is now threatening China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and other countries with additional tariffs as a part of trade investigations launched to replace the ones struck down by the Supreme Court. They aren’t expected to be as extreme, however, as the ones the president imposed last year.
Even with those duties in place, America still bought plenty from China in 2025 — more than $300 billion worth of goods, per USTR. Thus far in 2026, China ranks behind only Mexico and Canada (our North American World Cup co-hosts) in terms of largest U.S. trading partners.
And indeed, the FIFA shops are hawking plenty of “Made in China” swag, too: from bucket hats, to collectible pins, to keychains, to a $40 imitation gold chain with a FIFA logo pendant that my 8-year-old begged me to buy for him.
(That was a hard “no.”)
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