Elections

Federal filings: Biden cancer charity spent no money on research grants but millions on salaries

Published

4 years ago

November 16, 2020

The New York Post on Saturday reported that a cancer charity founded by Joe Biden has reportedly not given out any money for research, federal filings reveal. Rather, most of its money from donations was spent on staffers’ salaries.

This reporter asked the Biden campaign for an immediate comment but did not receive a response.

The former Vice President and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, launched the Biden Cancer Initiative in 2017 with its stated purpose to “develop and drive implementation of solutions to accelerate progress in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, research and care and to reduce disparities in cancer outcomes.” Biden’s eldest son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, died in 2015 after his battle with brain cancer.

While the charity spent no money on giving out grants in its first two years, it shelled out millions of dollars on the salaries of its aides that it hired from Washington, DC.

During fiscal years 2017 and 2018, the charity received $4,809,619 in contributions and spent $3,070,301 on payroll throughout the same two-year period. Gregory Simon, who heads the organization, got $429,850 in fiscal year 2018, the charity’s most recent federal tax filings show.

Under President Barack Obama’s administration, Simon, who is also a former Pfizer executive and longtime health care lobbyist, spearheaded the White House’s cancer task force. His salary roughly doubled in size from the $224,539 that he made in fiscal year 2017, tax filings detail.

According to The Post, Simon had said that the primary purpose of the charity was to not give out grants, and that its goal was to find ways to accelerate treatment for all, regardless of their economic or cultural backgrounds.

Obama’s former chief of staff for his Cancer Moonshot Task Force, Danielle Carnival, raked in $258,207 in 2018.

According to the federal tax filings, the BCI spent $56,738 on conferences and $59,356 on travel during the same year. The travel expenditure increased to $97,149, while the charity spent $742,953 on conferences, the year after.

Biden was appointed as head of the cancer task force after the 2015 death of his son Beau and launched the BCI after leaving office, seeking to continue that task force’s efforts.

Biden and his wife stepped down from the organization after a couple years when he decided to run for president and “paused” the group’s operations. After stepping down, Simon said in a 2019 interview with the Associated Press that the charity lost its edge. The charity is still active, according to the IRS.

The Post said that, last week, neither Simon nor Biden could be reached for comment.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

Elections

Biden’s first press conference after presidential debate filled with confusion, mumbling and defiance

Published

11 hours ago

July 12, 2024

Sara Carter Staff

President Joe Biden held a defiant first press conference after his presidential debate with former president Donald Trump, leading to high-profile Democrats calling for him to step aside.

Biden’s message was to insist he is “the best candidate” to beat Donald Trump in the upcoming election; albeit through many stumbles. Biden read prepared remarks off a teleprompter and answered questions from a pre-selected list of reporters Thursday night at NATO’s 75th anniversary summit, reports National Review.

The president coughed, whispered, stumbled over his words, and lost his stream of thought multiple times throughout the conference intending to show his leadership capabilities. At one point he even referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.”

Before speaking to reporters, Biden confused Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy with Russian president Vladimir Putin when he introduced Zelenskyy at a NATO event celebrating the alliance’s support for Ukraine.

The event was Biden’s first solo press conference since November of last year, when he took questions after his summit with Chinese president Xi Jinping in California.

“Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be vice president,” Biden accidentally said, defending his choice of Harris as his running mate.

“I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president. I beat him once and I will beat him again,” Biden demanded.

When asked whether it would harm his legacy if he were to lose to Trump in November, he challenged the question, saying “I’m not in this for my legacy.” He subsequently explained why he abandoned his “bridge” candidate pledge instead of anointing a successor.

“What changed was the gravity of the situation I inherited,” Biden said, citing the economic turbulence and geopolitical crisis of his first term. “My long time in the Senate equipped me to have the wisdom on how to deal with the Congress to get things done.”

Biden did acknowledge his need to slow down and his staffers’s desire to add events to his schedule, a tendency he said angered First Lady Jill Biden.

“I love my staff, but they add things. They add things all the time. I’m catching hell from my wife,” Biden stated.

At times, Biden gave long-winded, rambling answers on foreign policy, going into detail about working with world leaders and cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. During these stream of conscious answers, Biden repeatedly lost his trains of thought and stumbled over his words, repeating “anyway” and “the idea” as verbal crutches, noted National Review.

Asked about how he would fare at the end of a second term, Biden maintained that he’d be ready to deal with the leaders of hostile countries.

“I’m ready to deal with them now and three years from now,” Biden said of Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin, America’s two most powerful adversaries.