Biden says Jimmy Carter asked him to deliver his eulogy

• Biden was speaking about the revived Cancer Moonshot plan that aims to reduce the cancer death rate by half within 25 years while also calling for funding for the Advanced Research Project Agency for Health, or ARPA-H — which would focus on breakthrough health care and technology innovations.

What he's saying: "I spent time with Jimmy Carter and it's finally caught up with him," Biden said, according to the pool report.

• "But they found a way to keep him going for a lot longer than they anticipated because they found a breakthrough," he added.
• "He asked me to do his eulogy. Excuse me, I shouldn't say that."

The big picture: The Carter Foundation announced last month that the 98-year-old longest-living U.S. president had "decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care."

• Kim Fuller, a niece of Carter's, told Fox News Digital days later that the former president was in good spirits, "eating and talking."
• The 39th president has overcome a series of health issues in recent years, undergoing brain surgery in 2019 and being treated for cancer in 2015, for which doctors later gave him the all-clear.

Of note: Biden and Carter have enjoyed a friendship that's spanned decades.

• The first presidential endorsement that then-Gov. Carter received from an elected official outside of Georgia came in 1976 from a young Sen. Biden, per Axios' Emma Hurt.
• In an endorsement message for Biden in 2020, Carter called him his "first and most effective supporter in the Senate" and "my loyal and dedicated friend."

Go deeper: How Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden built an enduring friendship

Editor's note: This article has been updated with additional details throughout.