Joe Biden Becomes First VP to Launch Facebook Page
“It's the first time a vice president has had one of these," Biden says.
— -- Vice President Joe Biden is launching a new Facebook page today, coinciding with World Cancer Day and the 12th anniversary of Facebook, ABC News has learned.
“Welcome to my Facebook page,” Biden announces in a video message set to premiere late Thursday morning. “It's the first time a vice president has had one of these. I'd like it to be a place where we can talk directly about the issues that matter to both of us.”
Biden will also participate in chat on the Cancer Moonshot initiative at 3 p.m., according to a senior adviser in the vice president’s office.
“Platforms like this one have the potential to be incredible forums for constructive debate, and we should use them enthusiastically for that purpose,” Biden says in the video message. “But we shouldn't tear each other down. Because whether we're encountering each other here on Facebook, or on the sidewalk in the cities and towns where we live -- without our common decency, our respect for one another, we've got nothing.”
During his State of the Union address last month, President Obama announced he was forming a new White House Task Force on Cancer chaired by Vice President Biden, with the aim to harness the full energy of the federal government to focus on curing cancer.
Biden's son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, died in May at the age of 46 after a battle with brain cancer.
“As folks around the world join together in the fight against this terrible disease, I want to hear from you,” Biden says in the video. “The things you share here matter, if you choose to make them matter. And with the words and thoughts you share, you have the ability to bend the course of our history. Even just a little bit.”
The task force held its first official meeting on Monday.