During a speech in Vail, Colorado, this week declaring the Camp Hale Continental Divide a national monument, President Biden falsely claimed his son, Beau, who lost a battle with brain cancer, died in Iraq.
Biden made the comments when speaking about how the Army’s 10th Mountain Division trained at Camp Hale in the 1940s and acquired skills that helped them fight the Nazis.
"American soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division scaled that 1800-foot cliff, at night, caught the Germans by surprise, captured key positions, and broke through the Germans' defensive line at a pivotal point in the war," the president said before segueing into remarks about his son. "Just imagine — I mean it sincerely — I say this as a father of a man who won the Bronze Star, the conspicuous service medal, and lost his life in Iraq. Imagine the courage, the daring, and the genuine sacrifice — genuine sacrifice they all made."
WATCH: President Biden tells Colorado crowd his son Beau “lost his life in Iraq.”
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 13, 2022
Beau Biden, a decorated war veteran, died of brain cancer in 2015
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Beau, who deployed to Iraq in 2008 and returned to the U.S. in 2009, eventually lost a battle with glioblastoma in 2015.
In the past, Biden has speculated about the role burn pits may have played in his son’s cancer.
“Because of his exposure to burn pits — in my view, I can’t prove it yet, he came back with stage four glioblastoma. Eighteen months he lived, knowing he was going to die,” Biden said in 2019. But during an interview with PBS the year prior, he admitted he was unaware of “any direct scientific evidence” linking the two.
The medical community is also divided, with neurologists skeptical of a connection between burn pits and the development of glioblastoma multiforme.