Biden Accidentally Confirms Penn Gig on Hot Mic

Vice President Joe Biden, pictured with Penn’s Dr. Amy Gutmann, launches a “moonshot” initiative to hasten a cure for cancer at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia on January 15, 2016.

Last month, Politico reported that Vice President Biden would “set up shop” at Penn after Donald Trump takes office in Washington. Yesterday, while on a C-Span hot mic, Biden accidentally confirmed the Penn appointment.

“I’m going to be based out of Penn for foreign policy,” he said, saying he would “deliberately not [be] associating with any one medical center.” He said he will “continue the cancer work” with what he called “the Biden Trust.”

“It’s not so much about raising money or philanthropy, though there will be some of that,” Biden said, “but it’s more about keeping these guys cooperating and changing the culture.”

The video from C-Span was first clipped by Quartz’s David Yanofsky.

That Biden will be at Penn for “foreign policy” and not based out of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for his “cancer moonshot” initiative is a bit of a surprise. He visited HUP a year ago to discuss his plans and talk with prominent doctors from the school. “The Vice President’s cancer work will be an independent entity and will not be housed at any one university,” a spokesperson for Biden told The Daily Pennsylvanian.

“The goal is: Whatever breakthroughs we can make in 10 years, my goal is to make sure we can do it in five years,” Biden said last January. (A group of medical school deans, including Jefferson’s David Nash, criticized Biden for the initiative — saying it would be better to focus funding on cancer prevention rather than treatment.) Biden’s son, Beau, died of brain cancer in 2015.

Biden’s “foreign policy” comment suggests he might be based out of Perry World House, Penn’s relatively new “global policy research center that aims to advance interdisciplinary, policy-relevant research on the world’s most urgent global affairs challenges.” It’s located in the former Kappa Alpha fraternity house at 38th Street and Locust Walk.

A spokesperson for Penn said the University currently had no comment.