Former vice president and potential Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden gave a paid speech at a Michigan college last October in which he praised Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who was then in the midst of a tight re-election battle — and Biden's remarks, subsequently used in the Republican's messaging, may have helped boost Upton to a narrow victory over his Democratic challenger, The New York Times reports.
In the speech, delivered for a $200,000 fee at Lake Michigan College, Biden described Upton — a long-serving congressman and coauthor of a 2017 bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act — as "one of the finest guys I've ever worked with." Biden, whose eldest son, Beau, died of brain cancer in 2015, also called Upton "the reason we're going to beat cancer," ostensibly for his work to fund cancer research. Both statements soon appeared in pro-Upton mailers, and Upton referred to the praise in a debate with his opponent, Matt Longjohn.
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