Joe Biden comforts Meghan McCain over her father's cancer in tear-jerking moment

Former Vice President is well acquainted with family tragedy

In an emotional moment, former Vice President Joe Biden has reassured Meghan McCain about her father, John McCain's cancer diagnosis - and praised his close bond with the long-serving senator.

Arizona Republican Mr McCain revealed earlier this year that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, prompting an outpouring of support for the former Republican presidential nominee.

Mr Biden is familiar with family tragedy, having lost his wife and daughter in a 1972 car crash, while his son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015.

In an appearance on The View, Ms McCain dissolved into tears as she noted her father had been diagnosed with the same cancer as Beau Biden. Telling Mr Biden that “you and your family have been through tragedy that I couldn’t conceive of,” she asked the former Vice President’s advice for coping.

Walking around the interview table to sit closer to Ms McCain and take her hand, Mr Biden told her that her father had helped take care of Beau in his time of need. As Ms McCain nodded, he heralded medical advances that offer hope and then detailed his sense of closeness to her father.

“There’s breakthroughs that are occurring now,” Mr Biden said. “So there’s hope,” he continued, and “if anybody could make it [it’s] your dad”.

Despite their political disagreements, Mr Biden said: “I know if I picked up the phone tonight and called John McCain and said ‘John I’m at 2nd and Vine in Oshkosh and I need your help, come,’ he’d get on a plane and come. And I would for him, too”.

Ms McCain expressed her gratitude after the show, calling Mr Biden an "inspiration".

It wasn’t the first moving show of solidarity from the Obama administration. After Mr McCain’s diagnosis, Barack Obama praised his former presidential rival’s tenacity with a tweet that ended up being one of the top-three most liked of 2017.

“Cancer doesn't know what it's up against. Give it hell, John,” Mr Obama wrote.

The 81-year-old Sen McCain was first elected to the Senate in 1986 and won the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. He has emerged as a vocal critic of the administration’s foreign policy and cast the decisive 'no' vote against a Republican effort to repeal Mr Obama’s signature healthcare law.