An emotional President Joe Biden was guided to the stage as he attended the unveiling of a plaque Monday for his late son, Maj. Beau Biden, to mark Veterans Day.
The president traveled back to Delaware on Monday afternoon, and the White House did not provide information about why he was making the trip home after spending the weekend in Rehoboth Beach.
At the scene, he was seen giving his sister Valerie Biden a kiss on the lips and hugging Beau’s widow, Hallie, who dated Hunter Biden after Beau’s death from brain cancer in 2015.
The plague was settling into the Grubb/Worth mansion in Claymont, Delaware, the town outside Wilmington where the 81-year-old president grew up.
On his way to the podium, the president stopped to touch the Guardian of the Defenders Monument and was then guided to the conference venue by Major General Francis Valala.
President Joe Biden (right) planted a kiss on the mouth of his sister Valerie Biden (left) during a plaque dedicated to the late Maj. Beau Biden, which coincided with the Veterans Day holiday.
Valala called Beau a “truly patriotic American soldier” and said his job was to introduce “a local guy.”
‘Someone who grew up here in Claymont and took his deep-rooted small-town values to the world stage. “The father of a service member, a leader who has done more for our military than anyone in decades,” Valala said.
Valala then pointed to the PACT Act, which increased health benefits for veterans.
Earlier, during the Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Biden pledged to further improve cancer care for veterans exposed to toxins before leaving the White House in January.
The president began his speech by mumbling about how he remembered the Grubb/Worth mansion as a child.
It now serves as the headquarters of the Holy Rosary Church.
In 2021, a Guardian of the Defenders Monument was installed on the grounds to mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
President Joe Biden (center right) with his sister Valerie Biden (right) at a plague dedication for the late Beau Biden marking Veterans Day on Monday.
President Joe Biden (right) hugs Hallie Biden (center), Beau Biden’s widow who briefly dated Hunter Biden after her husband’s death in 2015.
President Joe Biden attends a plaque dedication ceremony for his late son, Maj. Beau Biden, on Veterans Day at the Grubb/Worth Mansion in Claymont, Delaware.
That’s where Beau Biden’s plague will lie.
‘I was so fucking proud. “I am very proud to join the military, the National Guard,” Biden recalled.
The younger Biden, who served as Delaware attorney general, told his father he had a “duty” to serve.
‘That was the code my son lived by. Duty,” said the president.
Biden talked about how America is unique because it is based on an “idea” and cited the Declaration of Independence, modifying the quote, “that all men and women are created equal.”
‘That’s what we were founded for. That’s what we are. That’s what we were. That’s what we continue to be. And yet, thanks to our veterans and many of you, we have never moved away from it, although there have been temptations to move away from that democratic notion,” Biden said.
“Friends, Beau would be very honored, very honored by his plaque, although he would also say ‘Dad, it’s not about me,'” the president continued.
Biden also said he wanted to revisit the memorial plaque once his entire family could join him.
Once the ceremony was over, he took the motorcade to his church, St. Joseph on the Brandywine, to visit Beau’s grave.
