Vice President Biden: Obama offered financial help when his son Beau Biden was ill with brain cancer

FILE: President Obama kisses Vice President Biden on the cheek as he hugs him after delivering the eulogy during the funeral of Biden's son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Vice President Biden said in an interview broadcast Monday night that President Obama offered him financial help when his son Beau Biden was suffering from cancer.

In the interview with CNN, the vice president said he had told Obama over one of their regular private lunches that if his son Beau were forced to step down his position as Delaware's attorney general and lose his income because of the brain cancer that ultimately killed him, the vice president and his wife Jill would have to sell their home to pay for Beau's medical expenses.

He said Obama told him not to do that.

"He said ‘I’ll give you the money. Whatever you need, I’ll give you the money. Don’t, Joe. Promise me. Promise me,'” Biden told CNN.

Biden said that his son was worried he would have to resign if the cancer affected his cognitive abilities, and that it did affect his speech before he died. Biden had told Obama that if Beau resigned there would be "nothing to fall back on."

"I said, 'But I worked it out,'" Biden recalled telling Obama. "I said, 'But -- Jill and I will sell the house and be in good shape.'"

Beau Biden served out his second term has Delaware's attorney general, leaving office in January 2015. He died in June that year at the age of 46. The emotional toll of his son's death on the vice president was one reason the elder Biden, 73, decided against running for president this year.

The vice president said he would "never forget" the eulogy Obama delivered at Beau's funeral.

"Obviously, the president and the vice president have developed the kind of personal relationship that just transcends their professional responsibilities," Earnest told CNN's "New Day" on Tuesday.