President-elect Joe Biden bids farewell to Wilmington, Delaware, again, this time before his own inauguration in Washington, D.C.
“It’s kind of emotional to me,” Biden said on Tuesday during his send-off, pausing to fight back tears.
“I’ll always be a proud son of the state of Delaware,” he added, going on to quote Irish poet James Joyce, as he has frequently done. “Excuse the emotion, but when I die, Delaware will be written on my heart.”
Biden’s goodbye event was staged at Delaware’s Major Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III National Guard/Reserve Center, named for his son who died from brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46.
During his short remarks, only five minutes in length, Biden said his family had one regret as he leaves to fulfill a long-held dream of becoming the commander in chief.
“We only have one regret. He’s not here,” he said of his late son, Beau. “We should be introducing him as president.”
Biden, 78, drew parallels between Tuesday’s trip and the journey he made in 2009 to meet former President Barack Obama, the country’s first black chief executive. Just 12 years later, he’s traveling to meet Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, the nation’s first black woman to be second in command.
“It’s deeply personal that our next journey to Washington starts here, a place that defines the very best of who we are as Americans,” he said. “I know these are dark times, but there is always light. That’s what makes this state so special. That’s what it taught me.”
Biden spent most of 2020 in Delaware after the pandemic curbed his campaign. He moved to the state from Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1942 when he was 10 so his father could start a new job.
Biden is expected to fly on a private plane from New Castle Airport in Delaware to Joint Base Andrews, which is outside of D.C. He’s due to address a COVID-19 tribute event at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool later on Tuesday.
