President Joe Biden on Tuesday gave two young children money to buy ice cream and advised young people to marry into a family with five daughters so “one of them will always love you.”
Biden, while talking about his legislative accomplishments on a stop in New Hampshire, struggled to deliver the PACT Act, his legislation that helped fund money for veterans suffering from exposure to toxic burn pits and other chemicals.
He also gave some strange advice.
“I tell every young man who is thinking about getting married to do it with a member of a family with five or more daughters,” he said. “One of them will always love you.”
Biden’s wife, Jill Tracy Biden, is the oldest of five sisters. Her sisters accompanied her to White House events, such as when she donated her inaugural gown to the Smithsonian Museum.
After his speech, Biden went to speak to the crowd. He gave seven-year-old Jack Brown and five-year-old Carter Brown money to buy ice cream.
The president loves ice cream. It is his favorite dessert.
President Joe Biden gives money for ice cream to Jack Brown, 7, and Carter Brown, 5, as he meets them and their veteran mom Megan Brown, with her 3-year-old daughter Madeline Brown.
Meanwhile, Biden announced Tuesday that more than 1 million veterans have been treated under a new law targeting those who suffered exposure to toxic burns during their service.
The visit is part of Biden’s effort to sell his legislative achievements to the American people as he seeks another term in the White House.
Biden’s late son Beau was exposed to toxic burns during his military service in Iraq.
Biden has long said he believes there could be a connection between the burn pits Beau was stationed near and his illness. Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015.
Eighty-six percent of post-9/11 veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan say they were exposed to burn pits, according to a 2020 survey by the nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
In 2022, Biden signed into law the ‘Compact Act,’ which expanded federal health care services for millions of veterans who served on military bases where toxic smoke billowed from huge ‘burn pits.’
More than 5.4 million veterans have received free toxic exposure screenings from the VA under the PACT Act, the White House said, calling it “a critical step to detect and treat life-threatening health conditions as early as possible.” .
That equates to about 888,000 veterans and survivors in the 50 states who have been able to receive disability benefits under the law.
Joe Biden has said he believes there could be a connection to the burn pits Beau Biden was stationed near in Iraq and his brain cancer, Beau died in 2015, ahead of then-Vice President Joe Biden with Beau Biden in Iraq in July. of 2009.
First Lady Jill Biden, center, her daughter Ashley Biden, left, and her sister Bonny Jacobs visit the pyramids of Giza, near Cairo.
Joe and Jill Biden married in June 1977
That adds up to about $5.7 billion in benefits given to veterans and their survivors, according to the administration.
The law ended a years-long fight to ensure treatment of chronic illnesses that veterans blamed on burn pits, which were used to dispose of chemicals, tires, plastics, medical equipment and human waste on military bases. Estimates of troops affected amount to 3.5 million.
But before the PACT Act became law, the Department of Veterans Affairs denied 70% of disability claims involving burn exposure. The law now requires the VA to assume that certain respiratory illnesses and cancers were linked to burns or other toxic exposures without veterans having to prove the link.
Comedian Jon Stewart was among those who advocated for the legislation.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this situation where people who have already given so much had to fight so hard to receive so little,” he said when the bill was finally passed. “I hope we learned a lesson.”
A garbage burning pit at Forward Operating Base Caferetta Nawzad, Helmand province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2011.
Solides burn trash in Afghanistan in 2012: Eighty-six percent of post-9/11 veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan say they were exposed to burn pits.
The U.S. military in both Afghanistan and Iraq disposed of trash and waste in open pits that many believe poisoned veterans with toxins in the smoke.
Beau Biden served in Iraq as a member of the Delaware National Guard.
President Biden has blamed burn pits for affecting troops.
‘I spent quite a bit of time there as a United States senator and as vice president. They burn pits and incinerate war waste, medical and hazardous materials, jet fuel and much more, simply dug in large pits, not far from alcoholic beverages, not far from where our veterans slept. When our troops came home, the fittest among them, the greatest fighting force in the history of the world, many of them were not the same: headaches, dizziness, numbness, dizziness, cancer,’ Biden said during his visit to Texas.
Experts are less definitive about the link between burn pit emissions and long-term medical conditions.
