Biden Says Cancer Will Limit Promotion of His Memoir, Out Nov. 17

Former President Joe Biden said on social media Sunday that his prostate cancer will keep him from doing as many conversations about his memoir, "Promise Me, America," as he had hoped. The book is due out Nov. 17. Biden wrote that some days are better than others, that the illness has not stopped him but sometimes slows him, and that he hopes the book speaks for itself. He said his doctors remain encouraged by his response to treatment. He was diagnosed in May 2025, about four months after leaving office, with an aggressive cancer that had spread to his bones. He turns 84 on Nov. 20. On Monday, The Atlantic published an excerpt in which Biden says Trump led an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and that his actions that day should follow him to his grave. Biden also criticized Trump's pardons of Jan. 6 defendants, saying those who attacked police deserved prison. NBC News said it had asked the White House for comment.

Left-leaning outlets split. NBC News leads with the Atlantic excerpt, quoting Biden's sharpest lines on Jan. 6 and the pardons and noting Trump's Time interview about pardoning administration members. Rolling Stone leads with the health update and quotes Biden's statement at length, including his father's advice to get up when knocked down. Right-leaning outlets treat the story as a health update. The Daily Mail adds that Biden was absent from the campaign trail and congratulated winning Democrats by phone on election night. Breitbart's short item says only that he is slowing his book tour. Both outlets omit the Jan. 6 material. All sides quote the same statement. ZeroHedge adds that the publisher set the release two weeks after the midterms, which it says spared Democratic candidates from answering for the book before voters went to the polls.