Former U.S. President Joe Biden drew public concern over Labor Day weekend when he was spotted with a noticeable wound on his forehead while leaving a church service in Delaware.
Footage shared online showed the 82-year-old walking slowly out of a church in Rehoboth Beach, where he greeted people outside.
His forehead appeared red, with a scar partly hidden by his hair.
Highlights
- Joe Biden was seen with a fresh wound and scar on his forehead after a recent Mohs surgery to remove skin cancer.
- Biden continues treatment for aggressive prostate cancer with bone metastasis, diagnoses announced in May 2025.
- Critics question why Biden’s late-stage cancer wasn’t detected earlier despite being declared fit in early 2024.
Joe Biden was seen with a noticeable wound and a scar around his forehead
Image credits: Fred Karger/Instagram
The video was filmed by Fred Karger, who later spoke to Inside Edition. “I was a little surprised ’cause it’s a noticeable scar,” Karger said.
“It looks fresh, a little hair combed over the scar. It looks to me like someone who had several basal cells, skin cancers removed from his head,” he said further.
Hours after the footage went viral, Biden’s spokesperson, Kelly Scully, confirmed he recently underwent Mohs surgery, a common treatment for skin cancer. The procedure removes thin layers of skin, one at a time, until no cancer cells remain.
The exact date of the surgery was not disclosed, but Biden had been seen in late August with a bandage on his forehead while attending the funeral of former Delaware governor and congressman Mike Castle.
This is not Biden’s first experience with skin cancer. In 2023, doctors removed a basal cell carcinoma from his chest. His wife, Jill Biden, has also undergone Mohs surgery for cancerous lesions.
Biden also lost his son, Beau, to brain cancer in 2015.
The forehead scar comes as Biden continues treatment for an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, the diagnosis of which was announced in May.
“Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms,” his office said in May.
“He was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.”
Biden’s medical team has said the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, meaning treatments can slow its progress.
Biden’s team announced he had undergone Mohs surgery, a procedure to remove skin cancer
Image credits: MEGA/Getty Images
The diagnosis raised questions about how the disease went undetected during his final years in the White House.
Biden’s longtime physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, had declared him “fit to serve” in February 2024 after a routine exam. Critics now argue that his declining health problems were not fully disclosed at the time.
U.S. President Donald Trump and other Republicans questioned how doctors could have missed the late-stage prostate cancer for so long, calling the situation a possible “cover-up.”
Conspiracy theories also resurfaced, including a 2022 clip in which Biden appeared to say he “had cancer.”
At the time, the White House clarified he was speaking about a past diagnosis of skin cancer, not announcing a new illness.
But in 2025, Republicans are claiming the video was not a gaffe but a cover-up, and that Biden knew he had cancer when he tried to run for re-election.
Many allege he had cancer during his entire presidency from 2021 to 2025.
Widespread concern regarding his fitness also led Biden to consider dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing then-Vice President Kamala Harris instead.
Over the holiday weekend, Biden tried to keep a normal routine, even stopping by a local ice cream shop wearing a baseball cap that appeared to cover the wound.
The scars from Mohs surgery can take about 12 to 18 months to heal, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
For now, his office has confirmed he remains in treatment but has not provided further details about his condition
Trump, 79, has also faced scrutiny over his fitness. Recent photos showed bruises on Trump’s hands and swelling in his legs. He was even rumored to have died after clearing his public events schedule over Labor Day weekend.
Image credits: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The White House said in July that Trump had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a condition in which veins in the legs cannot effectively return blood to the heart, causing it to collect in the lower limbs.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed the bruising on Trump’s hand to “frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin,” while doctors claim the bruising can result from age or medications like blood thinners.