Joe Biden offers heartfelt farewell to family

First, his 73-year-old wife, Jill Biden, will take the podium this Monday to talk about a term she believes was unfairly cut short.

Then his 43-year-old daughter Ashley will be in charge of introducing her 81-year-old father as he addresses thousands of delegates from the party that turned its back on him as he tried to win a second term.

When that happens, Biden will take the stage to give a speech he didn’t think he would give until less than a month ago: handing the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris.

“The first lady and her family will be with him tonight. It’s a great evening,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One, the presidential plane.

Several family members were also on the flight to Chicago, including Jill and Ashley Biden.

Joe Biden Anecdote

This comes as no surprise to those who have been following Biden. The president has maintained a close relationship with his family throughout his career.

He consulted them, he relied on them, and they often figured in his speeches as he used family anecdotes to add pop color to them.

He has kept them by his side even in the most difficult moments: Like his son Hunter Biden, he has a history of legal and personal problems that have been used by Republicans to attack him.

Biden and his family have made the toughest decisions of his career, including dropping out of the reelection race a few weeks ago.

Their close family bond was forged through tragedy.

His first wife, Neilia, was killed in a car accident in 1972, which also killed their one-year-old daughter, Naomi, and injured sons, Beau and Hunter.

He credits rebuilding and strengthening his family to Jill Biden, whom he married in 1977 and who brought daughter Ashley into the clan.

‘Spending time with family’, Joe Biden’s wealth

In 2008, when Biden accepted Barack Obama’s nomination to be his running mate, his son Beau Biden, then-Delaware Attorney General, briefed him about that year’s convention.

Beau died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46, but before he died he made his father promise that he would not give up his dream of becoming president of the United States.

In 2020, as I pursued this dream, it was Ashley and Hunter Biden’s turn to give acceptance speeches, supplemented by Beau’s video.

Family has also been crucial in this year’s difficult decisions.

Before the news rocked Washington, Biden, isolated at home due to covid-19, consulted with his wife and Hunter and spoke with them by phone.

A few days later, Jill and Ashley held hands as the president addressed the nation from the Oval Office while Hunter and several of his grandchildren looked on.

Biden will leave the Democratic National Convention this Monday after handing the baton to Harris and will travel to California, where, as his spokesman reported, “he will spend time with his family.”