Like Kamala Harris before him — whose first speech as the would-be VP on Wednesday was preceded by praise from her sister, niece and stepdaughter — Joe Biden was introduced during Thursday night’s Democratic National Convention by those nearest and dearest to him.
Biden’s children Ashley, 39, and Hunter, 50, appeared ahead of their father’s keynote speech to laud him as “tough” and “honest.”
“We want to tell you what kind of president our dad will be… He’ll tell you the truth even when you don’t want to hear it,” Ashley said, with Hunter adding, “He’ll never let you down.”
“The strongest shoulder you can ever lean on,” Hunter said, with Ashley adding, “He’ll beam with pride every time you succeed.”
“He’ll be the best friend, he’ll love you with all of his heart. And if you give him your cell phone number, he’s going to call it,” they said. “How do we know? He’s been that way our whole lives.”
“He’s been a great father,” the siblings concluded. “And we think he’ll be a great president.”
The siblings gave the last word to their late brother, Beau, using footage of him speaking at a previous convention: “In moments both public and private, he’s the father I’ve always known, the grandfather my children love and adore. My father. My hero, Joe Biden.”
(Beau received a tribute earlier in the evening.)
The Biden children’s remarks followed a video about their family that highlighted Joe’s relationship with his grandchildren, with the girls saying they pushed their grandfather to run this year: “We just knew that he had to run and we weren’t going to take no as an answer.”
Former second lady Dr. Jill Biden spoke at the convention on Tuesday about being inspired by Joe’s courage to fight on after the loss of their loved ones, including his first wife, Neilia, son Beau and daughter Naomi.
“Four days after Beau’s funeral, I watched Joe shave and put on his suit. I saw him steel himself in the mirror, take a breath, put his shoulders back and walk out into a world empty of our son,” she said. “He went back to work. That’s just who he is. There are times when I couldn’t imagine how he did it — how he put one foot in front of the other and kept going — but I’ve always understood why he did it.”
