--- title: Watch Joe Biden React to Obama Asking Him to Cure Cancer description: The big task was doled out during President Barack Obama's last State of the Union address on Jan. 12, 2016. canonical: https://time.com/4178517/cancer-state-of-the-union-joe-biden-obama/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-13T04:58:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:56:33.230Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Joe Biden React to Obama Asking Him to Cure Cancer og:description: It's a big ask. og:url: https://time.com/4178517/cancer-state-of-the-union-joe-biden-obama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt47c2a8cb83e51ddc/698878eaf887dc4fd7e94200/giphy.gif?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: giphy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Joe Biden React to Obama Asking Him to Cure Cancer twitter:description: It's a big ask. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt47c2a8cb83e51ddc/698878eaf887dc4fd7e94200/giphy.gif?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Joe Biden React to President Obama Asking Him to Cure Cancer ## Video: State of the Union - Next Moonshot: Cancer [Watch (HLS stream): State of the Union - Next Moonshot: Cancer](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Ubncm3ij.m3u8) (0:50)  _Published 2016-01-13. SOTU-2016-Cancer-v1_ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 13, 2016 4:58 AM UTC  C-SPAN by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 13, 2016 4:58 AM UTC President Barack Obama tasked Vice President Joe Biden with curing cancer during Tuesday’s State of the Union—much to Biden’s apparent surprise. Obama announced a new national cancer initiative, fronted by the Vice President. “Tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it done. And because he’s gone to the mat for all of us, on so many issues over the past forty years, I’m putting Joe in charge of Mission Control,” Obama said. “For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all.” This was much to the surprise of Biden, who reacted quickly, mouthing to House Speaker Paul Ryan that the initiative was “news to me.” The Vice President’s office was not surprised though, as they [quickly posted a briefing](https://medium.com/@VPOTUS/inspiring-a-new-generation-to-defy-the-bounds-of-innovation-a-moonshot-to-cure-cancer-fbdf71d01c2e#.oia6d3wh3) on Biden’s “moonshot” to cure cancer on the blogging platform Medium. His son, Joseph “Beau” Biden passed away to brain cancer last May, which inspired his father to take on the issue. Through the initiative, Biden will says he will work with private industry, government, doctors, patients and more to “target investment, coordinate across silos and increase access to information for everyone in the cancer community. “I know that we can help solidify a genuine global commitment to end cancer as we know it today—and inspire a new generation of scientists to pursue new discoveries and the bounds of human endeavor,” Biden wrote on Medium. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4178517/cancer-state-of-the-union-joe-biden-obama/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4178517/cancer-state-of-the-union-joe-biden-obama/"},"headline":"Watch Joe Biden React to President Obama Asking Him to Cure Cancer","datePublished":"2016-01-13T04:58:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:56:33.230Z","description":"It's a big ask.","url":"https://time.com/4178517/cancer-state-of-the-union-joe-biden-obama/","keywords":["state of the union","Joe Biden","politics","Cancer","Washington","President Barack Obama","Paul Ryan"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt47c2a8cb83e51ddc/698878eaf887dc4fd7e94200/giphy.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt47c2a8cb83e51ddc/698878eaf887dc4fd7e94200/giphy.gif?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"giphy","caption":"Joe Biden State of the Union Barack Obama Paul Ryan","creditText":"C-SPAN","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/state-of-the-union/","name":"state of the union"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4178517/cancer-state-of-the-union-joe-biden-obama/","name":"Watch Joe Biden React to President Obama Asking Him to Cure Cancer"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"State of the Union - Next Moonshot: Cancer","description":"SOTU-2016-Cancer-v1","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Ubncm3ij/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-01-13T02:56:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Ubncm3ij.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4178517/cancer-state-of-the-union-joe-biden-obama/","duration":"PT50S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4178517/cancer-state-of-the-union-joe-biden-obama/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```