On the eve of being inaugurated, President-elect Joe Biden’s thoughts are with his late son, Beau.
Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday. While bidding farewell to Delaware, where he’s lived for decades, he called upon the memory of his son who died of brain cancer in 2015. Biden became teary-eyed as he declared that Beau should’ve been the one to lead the free world.
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“Ladies and gentleman, I only have one regret: he’s not here, because we should be introducing him as president,” Biden said at the Major Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III National Guard /Reserve Center named in honor of Beau who also served as Delaware’s 44th Attorney General.
Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania but spent most of his adult life in Wilmington, Delaware. He attended the University of Delaware, raised his family there, and went on to be elected senator from the state at the age of 29. Tragedy soon struck after his first wife Neilia and daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car crash.
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Biden’s sons, Hunter and Beau, were injured in the crash and he took the oath of office from their hospital beds. Despite becoming a new senator, he commuted 90 minutes every night from Washington to Delaware for 36 years.
“It’s deeply personal that our next journey to Washington starts here,” Biden said during the event. “A place that defines the very best of who we are as Americans. I know these are dark times, but there is always light. That’s what makes this state so special, that what this state has taught me the most.”
Biden also quoted Irish poet James Joyce to emphasize just how much Delaware, which also served as his transition headquarters, means to him.
“When I die, Delaware will be written on my heart and the hearts of all of us, all the Bidens,” he said. “We love you all, you’ve been there for us in the good and the bad, you’ve never walked away, and I am proud, proud, proud, proud to be a son of Delaware.”
Biden and incoming first lady Dr. Jill Biden will arrive in Washington by plane due to security concerns. As theGrio reported, the breach at the U.S. Capitol prompted the president-elect to change his plans to take Amtrak to the Capitol ahead of the inauguration. It was his transportation of choice for his commute while he served in the Senate.
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