President Biden visits Bob Dole ahead of the Kansas GOP icon’s cancer treatment
President Joe Biden visited Kansas political icon Bob Dole ahead of the start of Dole’s cancer treatment, according to a White House pool report.
The two former Senate colleagues met Saturday at The Watergate complex, where Dole resides, in Washington, D.C.
“He’s doing well,” Biden told reporters of Dole’s condition after the visit.
On Thursday, Dole, 97, announced he had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and will begin treatment Monday.
The statement did not provide details about Dole’s treatment plan. Stage four is the most advanced stage of the disease and means that the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, according to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America.
Dole represented Kansas in Congress from 1961 to 1996, eventually rising to the position of Senate GOP leader.
Although on different sides of the aisle, Dole and Biden were Senate colleagues for more than two decades and have a longstanding friendship.
They both have also been presidential candidates. In 1996, Dole won the Republican nomination for president, running an unsuccessful challenge against then-President Bill Clinton.
After Biden won the presidency in 2020, Dole spoke out against President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the election results. Dole said in December that the election was over and that “it’s a pretty bitter pill for Trump, but it’s a fact he lost.”
Dole praised Biden’s Senate tenure.
“He’s a friend of mine and he was a good chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate,” Dole said in December. “He did a good job. Proud to be a liberal—hopefully not too liberal—but he knows how the government works and the Congress works and all this will be a benefit to Joe.”
Star political reporter Bryan Lowry contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 20, 2021 at 5:22 PM with the headline "President Biden visits Bob Dole ahead of the Kansas GOP icon’s cancer treatment."
