When a Crying Joe Biden Claimed, "Beau Should Be the One Running for President, Not Me"

Joe Biden, now 81, discussed a wide range of issues during an interview with MSNBC's Morning Joe in January 2020. However, the conversation shifted when host Joe Scarborough brought up Beau Biden, who tragically passed away from brain cancer in 2015. President Biden sobbed as he spoke about his son. He said, " Beau should be the one running for president, not me."

After the 2008 and 2012 vice presidential debates, Joe was a running mate for Barack Obama. As reported by the Independent, Joe recalled on the show, "'Look at me, dad. Remember home base. Just remember who you are.' He'd grab me by the lapel. He still grabs me by the lapel. Sorry, I'm getting emotional." When asked whether Beau still guides and inspires him, the Democrat leader responded, "Every morning I get up Joe, not a joke, I think to myself ‘Is he proud of me?' Because he’s the one who wanted me to stay engaged, made me promise, ‘Promise me, dad, promise me...you’ll stay engaged.'"

Beau was the Attorney General of Delaware and was 46 years old when he passed. In light of the same and the deaths of his first wife and baby daughter in a car accident, Joe claimed, "You'd be amazed at the number of people who come up to me. I mean hundreds of people over time. They'll throw their arms around me, men and women, and say, 'I just lost my son, I just lost my father, I just lost my wife.' And all they want to know is that you're going to make it."

Back in 2020, Joe also spoke about processing grief and said, "Part of going through it publicly is...it puts you in a position where you either are going to walk away from trying to give hope and comfort to somebody...or you engage it, and it's hard. But at least you get satisfaction, in my case at least, from knowing that that's what my deceased wife would have wanted me to do; that's what my son would want me to do." 

During an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2017, the incumbent POTUS also discussed Beau's last moments in detail. As per People, he told Winfrey at the time, "Beau looked at me and said, ‘Dad, I’m not afraid. I’m okay.' It was at the very end. His brother [Hunter] was sitting there, the three of us were holding hands, and [Beau] wanted to reassure us." He further recalled, "I’d see him and he’d say, ‘Dad, look at me. Stop looking sad…no matter what happens, I’m gonna be alright, Dad. You’ve got to look happy. You’ve got to look strong for the family.’"

According to another report from People, the Bidens recently on May 30, paid a visit to St. Joseph Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware, at 7.30 a.m. on the ninth anniversary of Beau's passing. The church is the last resting place of their son. They also paid a visit to the adjacent Veterans Memorial Park after the event. As he placed a bouquet at the memorial, the President—wearing his signature aviators—took a minute to himself.