Joe Biden's Son Dead at 46

Joe Biden's eldest son, Beau, has died at age 46. The former attorney general of Delaware had been battling brain cancer, a statement from the vice president said tonight. He had been admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in DC recently for treatment, reports the Washington Post. Beau also had sought treatment at a cancer center in 2013, and he suffered a mild stroke a few years before that. “The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words," said the Bidens' statement. "We know that Beau’s spirit will live on in all of us—especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter."

President Obama tweeted that "Michelle and I are grieving tonight," reports CNBC. "Beau Biden was a friend of ours." The Post called him the "rising star of a family dynasty," and ABC News reports that he had been considering a run for governor in Delaware. "In the words of the Biden family: Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known," said the family statement. Back in 1972, shortly after Joe Biden won his Senate seat, his wife, Neilla, and their daughter were killed in a car crash. Sons Beau and Hunter survived but were seriously injured, a story Beau recounted when introducing his father in 2008 at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The speech launched Beau into the national spotlight. (More Beau Biden stories.)