Biden Speaks at Kennedy Memorial

Not you, Mr. President, you’re up next. President Biden, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m sure you’re clapping because I’m the last speaker. That was worth that partial comment, concert. You know what he said in the way out? Can I tell him, pal? He said, “If I get a Grammy, I’m going to give it to you.” The only guy in this whole darn church who can’t sing a note. My dad used to have a band and he sang. He said, “Joe, I don’t know where the hell you came from. You can’t carry a tune. You can’t sing, you can’t dance. I don’t know where you came from. I love you anyway.” Father McMillan, thank you for everything. Thank you for being so good to us. President Clinton, President Obama, distinguished guests, the Kennedy Family, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and extended family. It’s been an emotional journey listening to all of you, and I knew I was going to be the last speaker, I thought, how did that happen?

(01:44)
Because it brings back so many memories. Ethel was always there for so many people, and she played an essential role in my life as well, maybe a little different than with others. She was there as soon as I entered political office in 1972 as a 29-year-old kid before I got sworn in. I was in her brother-in-law’s office, Teddy’s office hiring staff. I was only 29. You had to be 30 years old to be sworn in, and I wasn’t 30 yet. When I got a phone call from the fire department by my house, there had been an accident. Tractor trailer broadsided my wife’s automobile, Christmas shopping and the Christmas tree on top, December 18th, and killed my wife, and killed my daughter, and my boys weren’t expected to live. When I lost my family, and she was there, Joe, your mom was there then. As soon as I got elected president, I received a letter from your mom.

(02:57)
The letter here was titled Mrs. Robert Kennedy, and in her very neat handwriting, she had written that she took great comfort in knowing the country was in good hands. She had no idea for a 29-year-old kid in that circumstance, how much it meant because some of you know, Bill knows, I didn’t plan on sticking around after that accident. She said she was honored and proud. There was a bust of her husband, Bobby Kennedy in my office, the Oval Office. I had only two political heroes in my life, Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy. Not a joke. So I didn’t realize my two colleagues who are president now, you get to pick what you want in your office, and I wanted to be able to see both of them from my resolution desk by the fireplace, Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy.

(03:53)
And days later, I received another letter from her that I’ll always remember, that I know all of you look forward to each year, a Valentine card. A Valentine card, which in our house Valentine’s Day is known as Jill’s Holiday. Like Ethel, Jill is a practical joker. So it was no surprise that Jill loved Ethel’s card that year, which said… I’m not sure the hundred others who receive it felt the same way because apparently she sent that card she sent to everyone that year. It was a picture of me and Ethel surrounded by hearts. Oh, you think I’m kidding? It meant a lot to me. I’m telling you. Printed the language on the card, it said, in the printed language of the card, it said, “I’m not Biden my time waiting for you Valentine.” Then in her handwriting she says, “Because he’s no ordinary Joe.”

(05:06)
I don’t know how many of you got that damn Valentine, but I’ll tell you what, it meant a lot to me. I’ve received a lot of honors in my life, but that might be the best one I’ve ever received. Yes, Ethel was Mrs. Robert Kennedy. He was one of my political heroes, but I always knew her as Ethel Kennedy, a hero in her own right. I loved Bobby Kennedy. I’ve only met him once when I was in Syracuse Law school and he was campaigning, but I admired him so damn much. I’ve told John Kerry this, my buddy, I could picture Bobby at my kitchen table with my dad and my mom. I could picture him there, but Ethel was a hero on her own right, full of character, full of integrity and empathy, genuine empathy. She’s full of laughter and joy and light. She’s a great athlete in her own right, for real. She was a mother. Literally, there was nothing from my perspective, and I suspect most of you, that she couldn’t do, nothing.

(06:29)
Four years later after Bobby, she lost her beloved Bobby, she invited me and my boys to her home. After the accident left my family broken, having lost my wife and daughter and my boys barely making it, along with Teddy. She got me through a time I didn’t want to stick around. I wanted no part of being in the Congress or the Senate. I mean it. I’d spoken to my governor because we had elected a Democratic governor to find a replacement for me, but Teddy and Ethel Kennedy would hear none of it. The fact is, like she did for the country, Ethel helped my family find a way forward with principle and purpose. We saw how she picked up Bobby’s cause and stamped her own mark on the country. Marching for civil rights, as you heard about today, and working in poverty at home, attempting to secure a piece abroad and so much more.

(07:58)
She once said, “For anyone to achieve something, you have to show a little courage. You’re only on this earth once, you must give it all you’ve got.” Reminded me of my mom. My mommy said, “Joey, courage lives in every heart and one day it’ll be called upon. Be ready to stand up.” And that’s from Katherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden. She meant it. She meant it for over 50 years, that was the iron will and moral courage. She gave it everything she had and we’re a better nation and a better world because of Ethel Kennedy. Let me close with this. On a Sunday in May this year, I delivered a commencement speech at Morehouse College in Atlanta. I noted that had we been in church that day, there would be a reflection about the resurrection and redemption. Remember, Jesus was buried on Friday and then Sunday rose again, but we don’t talk nearly enough about that Saturday when his disciples felt all hope was lost, all hope was lost.

(09:31)
In our lives, the lives in the life of our nation, we have those Saturdays and thank God, your mom, your grandma, your great-grandma was there for me. It’s bear witness to the day before glory to see people’s pain and not look away, but work is to be done on Saturday, is to move pain to purpose. How can faith get a person, get a nation through what is coming? Well, my message to all of us here today, to the entire country, is look to Ethel Kennedy’s faith. To the Kennedy Family, presumptuous me to say this and maybe sound inappropriate, but to the Kennedy Family, the Biden Family is here for you, as you have always been for us. You changed the life of my boys. You really did. When I lost my son, Beau, was the Attorney General of the state of Delaware, and he volunteered to join the National Guard as Attorney General. You either have to be state property or federal property.

(11:21)
He temporarily gave of his office to go with his unit for a year in Iraq and unfortunately, I was in and out of Iraq as Barack knows, and Afghanistan thirty-some times. I got to see him several times, but the bad news was he was about a quarter to a half mile away from my burn pit, a hundred yards long, 10 feet deep, burning everything from waste to everything, poisoning the air. And he came home with stage four glioblastoma, and he died. Your mom was there then, too. I apologize. So from the Biden Family to the Kennedy Family, the hymn that’s very close to our heart based on the 91st psalm goes like this, may he raise you up on eagle’s wings and bear you on the breath of dawn, and make you to the shine like the sun and hold you in the palm of his hand. May God bless Ethel Kennedy, and may she be reunited with the blessed pieces of her soul in heaven. God bless you all and thank you for letting me participate. Thank you.