Hear how Joe Biden honored son Beau weeks before his death

Updated
Joe Biden Honors Beau In Commencement Speech Weeks Before His Death
Joe Biden Honors Beau In Commencement Speech Weeks Before His Death

Just two weeks before Beau Biden died from brain cancer, Vice President Joe Biden talked about his son during a commencement speech at Yale University.

The speech was like many others given during graduation ceremonies — full of advice, personal stories and even a few quips.

But Biden also quietly honored his son without ever bringing up his illness.

He first mentioned his family while recalling a car crash decades earlier that took his wife and one-year-old daughter. Beau and his brother Hunter were critically injured.


"I can remember my mother looking at me after we left the hospital and saying, 'Joey, out of everything terrible that happens to you, something good will come if you look hard enough for it.'"

The vice president said that the good he found was realizing that he needed to focus on his sons, who he called his 'redemption.' He was sworn into Congress at the hospital in Delaware and commuted to Washington daily until they were released.

"The incredible bond I have with my children is a gift I'm not sure I would have had, had I not been through what I went through."

He used Hunter as an example of the advantages that come with being a Yale graduate — and Beau as an example of what hard work can achieve.

"My Yale Law School grad son graduated very well from Yale Law School. My other son out of loyalty to his deceased mother decided to go to Syracuse Law School from Penn...The one who graduated from Yale had doors open to him, the lowest salary offered back in the early '90s was $50,000 more than a federal judge made. My other son, it was a struggle — equally as bright, went on to be elected one of the youngest attorney generals in the history of the state of Delaware, the most popular public official in my state. Big headline after the 2012 election, "Biden Most Popular Man in Delaware — Beau."


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