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Joe Biden consoles an emotional Meghan McCain over her father's brain cancer

The former vice president offered support to McCain after she talked about her dad's cancer, the same disease that took Biden's son.
/ Source: TODAY

Former Vice President Joe Biden comforted Meghan McCain during an emotional discussion Wednesday on “The View,” where the two discussed the devastating brain cancer that has left a deep impact on their loved ones.

Biden’s son Beau passed away in 2015 from glioblastoma, a rare and highly aggressive form of brain cancer that McCain’s father, Arizona Sen. John McCain, was diagnosed with six months ago.

Biden had appeared on "The View" to promote his new book, “Promise Me, Dad,” which chronicles Beau’s battle with cancer.

“I couldn’t get through your book. I tried,” McCain admitted to Biden before she started tearing up. “I think about Beau almost every day, and I was told that this doesn’t get easier, but you cultivate the tools to work with this.”

That prompted Biden to stand up from his seat at the table and walk over to sit down next to McCain. He took her hand and began speaking about the admiration his son had for her father.

“You may remember when you were a little kid, your dad took care of my Beau,” Biden told McCain as she wiped away tears with a tissue. “Your dad … became friends with Beau. And Beau talked about your dad’s courage — not about illness — but about his courage.”

Biden admitted that getting a diagnosis of glioblastoma is “about as bad as it gets,” but he also said patients are being given hope by innovations from researchers who are on the verge of medical breakthroughs, any of which “can happen tomorrow.”

“So there is hope. And if anybody can make it, (it’s) your dad,” Biden said, before describing his venerable friendship with his former Arizona colleague and the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.

“Her dad is one of my best friends,” he said, to which McCain agreed, adding: “They’re very old friends.”

Biden then joked about how McCain’s father sometimes went after him “hammer and tong.”

“We were like two brothers who were somehow raised by different fathers because of our different points of views,” he said, before making a reference to their last run for the White House. “Even when your dad got mad at me and said I should get the hell off the ticket!”

John McCain, 81, later thanked Biden in a tweet for his words of support to his daughter.

"Thank you @JoeBiden & the entire Biden family for serving as an example & source of strength for my own family," the senior Arizona senator wrote.