In an emotional speech, President Obama said he was inspired by Beau Biden, late son of Vice President Joe Biden, who died of cancer last week. The president said the younger Biden was a model of selflessness and of honorable service that made him want to be a better person.
“He was the scion of an incredible family who brushed away the possibility of privilege for the harder, better reward of earning his own way. He was a soldier who dodged glory and exuded true humility. A prosecutor who defended the defenseless. A rare politician who collected more fans than foes. And the rare public figure who prioritized his private life above all else,” Obama said.
The president delivered the eulogy at the younger Biden’s funeral Saturday at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Wilmington, Del. An estimated thousand people attended the event, including former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Beau Biden, the former attorney general of Delaware, died at age 46 on May 30 from brain cancer. Obama noted that he turned down the appointment to the position in 2006 “so that he could win it fair and square” in an election instead.
“And when the field was cleared for him to run for the Senate, he chose to finish his job as AG instead,” Obama said, adding, “He didn’t do these things to gain favor with a cynical public. It was just who he was.”
In 2003, Biden volunteered for the Delaware National Guard, where he served in the legal branch Judge Advocate General Corps. Obama recalled how when Beau was deployed to Iraq, he waved away the reporters who wanted to interview him, not wanting the special treatment. “Beau refused. He was another soldier.”
Beau Biden was in a car crash in 1972, when he was just three years old that claimed the life of his mother, Neilia Biden, and younger sister, Naomi. Yet neither that, nor his later diagnosis of cancer, embittered him, the president said.
“The cruelty he endured in his life didn’t make him hard. It made him compassionate,” Obama said.
