but you think that's still true now? i you just don't know how the ball bounces. and that's why you would need a primary. and and that's happening. there are some candidates i can see being very competitive. other people who i could imagine winning the who would be less competitive. i think that he thinks if he really thought that vice president harris could beat donald trump, he would have stepped aside. and the fact that he hasn't tells you that he doesn't, that she can and i would leave last word to you. you have 15 seconds. i think the first question is very interesting. i think, you know, why wouldn't biden run, right? why biden beat him in 2020? he the red wave that was predicted didn't materialize. you know, roe was a big factor in that. and, you know, biden did frame, i think, in a smart way with democracy. and i think that was a winning message. i thank all of you. that was excellent panel. i enjoyed it greatly. thank you for putting me the spot. thank you all forthank all for's

unfolding bar mitzvah. it's the world's bar mitzvah keeps going, but the senator is going to lead things off and then i'm going to do sort of the second half. we come from. it takes two people to fully understand the phenomena that valerie biden owens and. so we are going to have we're going to divide that. and so the senator will go first and then i'll follow. i do want to announce that i attempted to make valerie my second wife recently. it didn't it didn't go well. but see if you all can. me oh, this is a two against one here. so you come with me. okay with me on this? yes. john at one point, what you referring to? we were friends and and he said,

know you are one of my fave women. i said, excuse me on the phone. you were one of my favorite women. said one of not any longer. i mean, who's going to be one of right? none of you would take that. so. all right. well with that opening. okay. i could tell you the quick story of how i met valerie, although i know she did remember it after all these years because i was one of many people who came into her life because of her brother, joe. and i'll explain it. so in 1987, i in the house of representatives, i got in there in 83. and when joe decided he was thinking about running and then decided to run for president, i called him up. i had worked with him on saving the dolphin and environmental issues and his kid, ashley, at that time was telling him, you have do something, daddy.

and so we worked together. so when i called him, i said, i really want to help. i don't know what i can do. tell me what i should do. he said two words to me and they weren't a curse and they weren't. thank you. they were. call valerie. and i said, valerie. and he said she, runs everything to do with my campaigns. and that's how i met valerie. i called her make a long story short, that campaign didn't work out. the way we wanted, but i'll never her because she was one of the smartest, brightest lights in the room and. i mean it. and there were no women doing this work. take from me. i mean, i was in the year the women in the senate when we finally our numbers and people said oh isn't, that fantastic we went from 2 to 6. valerie was the only one out

there. we're going to talk about it. but since i have a short time and i a senator and i talk too much, i'm going to get right to the question and the very first question. so when you were a little kid and became finally became your brother's most trusted political and friend, you write that you lived in joe's shadow willingly. these are your words and happily. and led him through winning campaigns from was years in the background by choice because you can see this is a woman who thrives yes in the background but also right out there. so what is it about your brother, our president, that kept you working for him? the background? well, i felt like i was in the background. you know, there are two ways to spend the light, edith wharton said. one is to be the candle and the

other is the mirror that reflects. and joe i it balance back and forth and he told me from the time i was a little girl that whatever he could do he said you could do better, which was couldn't possibly be true because he was years older and now he's years years and years i and stronger and braver than i but you know he his faith in me i knew i owed it to him and to myself to try to be that little girl or that woman that he thought i could be. i would say, though, the for every every campaign manager, you should be in the background. you're not the candidate. and the you know, if when i was running campaigns, if the principal in in the campaign were the ones on the front page as opposed to the candidate i would have fired them. that's not their job. the job is to be the candidate to go out to listen to people,

to try to persuade them, to try to learn them. and it was it's just it's part of the it's a natural place to be. and i always it was easy. i mean, he's my best friend, so i you know, i was i was his sidekick was with him. and and he listens to me, he pays attention to me. and that's what that's what i'm there for. you can't fire a sister. and, you know, so when you were children. you write that joe started family meetings to have meetings with the kids. could you give us a sense of what those like? okay, i'm irish-catholic class, family, mid-twentieth century, split level house, three bedrooms. we were not poor. we were middle class. my dad sold cars when i was campaigning then was a manager of that local dealership.

but it mattered. it would have mattered if my father skipped a paycheck. so we and again in those days, a middle. you didn't talk about money. you know, it it was just kind of a pattern that you know, they class or whatever they fancy where it is and what the hell did you ask me? well, i wanted to ask you. oh, yes. meetings were left so. if my mom said when we walked out of the door that the four kids that we had to stick together, we had to have each other's back. there's nothing culture, we were told, than brothers and sisters. so mom would say when you when we walked out, remember your biden's now not your rockefellers or vanities. you know you're a unit and you take care of each other. but when he came back into the house, we were just like normal for kids, you know, we we have squabbles, we have differences of, opinions and all of our our

argument were that we would hurt each other's feelings. i mean, i none of us ever willingly one after the other, but, you know, you you hurt people's feelings. so whatever it was, democratic, we could call a meeting. and joe, who you know, i when i talk about him, i talk about good is good enough. he doesn't walk on water. he doesn't lay the hands. he could be a jerk he could be a wonderful person. he's he's a brother. so if something happened and i we one of us would call a family meeting. we go upstairs in the bedroom. my parents never interfered. we shut the door. say what, joe? what the. what's the what did you do that for? when i was with maureen yesterday. why you say that? and you really embarrassed me. i want to stab you something close to. and the answer would be. jeez, i did what? i didn't mean that or whatever

it was. oh, the the the pain or the hurt was talked about was expressed and it was said, gee, i made a mistake or i'm really sorry. and it would be over with. my parents never came in. they never interfered and you know, we'd walk out and we would be back being friends, it's not easy raising an older brother, you know, i had a i had a tight rat, but that's what family meetings were. we we never let it fester. we each make mistakes. nobody's perfect. and we worked it out well, that's a beautiful message for family, for friends, for colleagues, of any kind to. talk it out and don't let that anger or fear, disappointment change your relationship. so i loved reading about the biden family rules. you write about what they were

and what you wrote. one, we're expected to tell the truth, too. and as i say, these things i think of the president okay, so think of the president expected to tell the truth. expect it to stand up to bullies, expect it to treat everyone with dignity, expected to never despair. those rules, there are wonderful rules and i wondered, where do they come from? they come from your mom, your dad, your brother, you, where they come from, both of us. we never had rules, you know that were on the refrigerator door, you know, we just you know, we were for little kids and we we knew what mom and dad expected us. and we just we didn't want to disappoint them. and my there there were refrains that used in the family all the time. my dad is a it doesn't matter how many times you get down, get up, get fast.

that was that was one of them. and you never call it you. dignity was a big deal. my my brother uses the expression all the time with that paycheck is more than the money you learn about dignity. it's about your place in the community. my brother, when he was a kid, was a terrible stutterer. he could not string than three words together at a time and i didn't realize that as a little girl he was my big brother. but as i got older, i saw and once tasted humiliation. i mean, that bile stays in your throat for a long time. and i think that my brother is the leader and the man that he is because of having had a debility stutter and knowing and having the backbone to layer by

layer, bringing confidence and, strength and practice and know that you are not going to be defined by a bully. and people bullied him. he was smaller, he didn't. and like me, i did not go into this voluptuous overnight. it took me a while and you know, my brothers, didn't you know, they weren't big. they didn't go big and strong until later in their teens. so i, i think that the that the stuttering gave him the empathy. and again, empathy is a word that if i, i don't want to sound preachy, but it's it is what is missing most in our society today and you know atticus finch said it better to walk inside another person's skin but if you're to do that even for a little bit, you're a better

person. and joe did because of the heart adversity, character, much more than the spoils of victory. and i think that the lessons came from mom and dad but talking to is not as there were never rules was never you go to your room and you know taken away your bicycle and you can the worst that my my father or mother and my mother said it worse words you could ever say is just get out my side now. i was like, oh, jesus, what? you know, that was terrible. she never said it to me only once or twice. that's too much. well, i there's this is a wonderful story about you and joe. when what brother joe did, when your dad told you that he couldn't the cost of college you

and that you should go secretarial school and the way joe responded that could you share that with us. yeah. now, dad was not a male chauvinist. i mean, he's a wonderful, decent man who simply not have the financial resources to have the fought four kids. so and again, joe's in college and i'm high school and it's time for me to go to the you know, i have gone to ursuline for young girls, 63 girls in the class i could wait to get to the university of delaware like died and candyland, you know, like but part of college was for me was living at college, which joe did and and was a good student. so i got in and my dad god bless him, tried to make everything okay because. he was a car salesman. car manager. he was able to give me a, which

was a lot less expensive than room and board. i mean, i to go to college but to and he said honey you can use this and you could commute and it it didn't work that way. and my cut to the chase, my brother in august and doesn't look like dad couldn't the money and we worked i mean it wasn't i was getting my nails done and you know i couldn't i mean we worked but there was not enough. and my brother joe called a family meeting with mom and dad and he come on out. come with me. and he said, dad, i'm not going to go back to school. i'm going to take this year off. and i don't don't worry, dad. i mean, i'm going to college. mom and dad did not go to college. so being a college man was a big deal and he said, i'm not going to go this year. i'm going to take a year off and

i'm going to work so that i will have enough money to go back next year. and so that val can go this year because my brother said because she's smarter than i am, she's a better person that, you know what big brother say, but all good things and she and she it. so let her go and i promise i'll go back next year and. my father said, champ, you can't do. and he called i called my brother champ. he called me willie. i mean, go figure. but. because at the time, which was true, the man was the bread, the breadwinner. and my dad said to me, honey, you're, you know, again, you're beautiful, you're smart. you know, you can go. there was nothing bad about secretary of school except i didn't want to go there. i mean, i wanted to and major in english and history at the university so but he said it would be okay you know you're going to marry somebody, you're

going to have kids, it'll be great. and that's somehow my father got the loan but my i mean i didn't know whether my brother said it i, i wanted to cry i couldn't because what i didn't want him to i didn't want to take that away. and i wanted him to be able to go. but for him to give it up for me was the way that you don't count that the expression my son's out over there and the expression is that you you don't count the change. whoever has that at the time does it. and, you know, it flips back and forth. who takes care of it? well, i found that so touching of your brother since i was a better student, i think, you know, you both went there you def. he knew that this was a pivotal moment. your life. so i have one more question because i'm going toss it to

john because we're sharing this even though we hate to share it, because as you even though i hung up on him the joy of of of of of interviewing valerie. so i'm going to get to a very tough part, and i'm going to ask you to read your own words. and i have the book here. i'll pass it to. but in 1972, you run joe, first race for the united states senate. he was a huge underdog. it was a terrible for democrats. it was richard nixon landslide. i ran to here self in laws for local government so i know how hard it was but you did it and you write that you savored that race more than anything. and we don't have time to ask you why, but i certainly know when you're the underdog like that, i know it was a family thing and all wonderful things. so now comes a very tough part in what has so.

far been a very sunny story. and the chapter call shattered and what happened is i think everybody knows that the tragedy that ensued with joe losing his wife, neilia, who was one of valerie's absolute role as she writes in her book, and his daughter and the two boys are very badly, but they survive. and joe is the youngest, one of the youngest ever elected the united states. and so, like, he's 29 years old. and could you just read what you wrote? and then i'm going to ask you to say a few more things, and i'm going to turn it over to john. if you get the book this is something you're going to want to remember the poetry of it. so this is we were elected november 7th, the first time in 1972. interesting. we were elected 48 years later, november 7th, for presidency at

that. and so neilia and the baby whose 13 months old were hit broadside by a tractor trailer, they were killed immediately, beau and hunter, who were two and three, were very seriously and in intensive care in the hospital for a long time. and i to i got to share them with my brother and move in with them. okay. we all like to imagine we're in control, but in growing older, we experience many reminders that we are not as much as we try. we cannot will life outcomes to our specifications. perhaps we can bend the arc of our journey, but we cannot forge it and steel in the dark of my night in the dark of my sadness, i let go and take the plunge into face deep water thy will be done to maintain my sanity, choose to believe against odds

as i know them that i will be helped. i will survive some good will come. thank so much for reading this beautifully written. so i'm going to turn it over to john and sit back and listen. well, thanks, senator, for that very cheerful. segway. you could revive yourself wherever you go. you could revise and your remarks as well. so so you're a critical architect of what has become one of the most important political in american history. republican or democrat liberal conserver of rural or urban, the campaign of 2020, the campaign of 2022, the campaign of 2024.

now unfolding are without any partizan tinge vital really to the continuance of constitutional government in the country. what is it about joe biden and the biden family which are connected intimately that gave him the resilience to do the senator was part of the first presidential campaign for president biden to run and win in 2020 is roughly as if adelaide stevenson had run and won in 1988. but right, the amount of time between a presidential run and a different presidential run, what drives him, which i think is

also a question about what drives the family. and my brother is a public servant i mean, that's who he is doesn't make him good or heroic or bad. it just is who he is. and he is always has been he's always appealed to the better angels he is is. he he was a he was a natural. i mean, growing up, he never stood up. and, you know, pounded chest and said, come follow me, you know, i'm going to do this. but people gravitated to him because because he's decent and he's kind, he's strong and he's capable. but to the quality needs of a leader, temperament, empathy.

intelligence, patient patience. he patients. not so much. yeah, well, no, but i mean, yeah, and you know, i think as putin about that that's true but i think that he's i don't think he he's always had purpose and and he gets up and he really think about how to do things better. so again, i don't i want to make him a superhero. you know, he's just a regular guy, but he's a man and. he has such trust in the american people and the values that the american people give him a fair, equal justice, you know, no haven hatred and that together we can do anything.

and you know that i think the most important characteristic of a leader is character. and if base of bold as now your character is on the line. that's right. just as much my brother's of who you're going to choose for president. and it's it's a so i think it is again he's he's a regular guy but it's a commitment to to the dignity and, the justice that is just way that we were raised. we were we catholic school kids. and it happened that the value use the social values of the nuns that we were reinforced in school and the priests that my brother went to was catholic social values meshed with our family. so we weren't catholic little do

gooders too well your your squad, you're episcopalian. i am. i am. we're god's frozen people. yeah. yeah. well, frozen. yeah, frozen people. they're six of us. left. but we have. i've been to get the president to cross the tims. but it's not going to happen. no, but plenty of room in our pews. that is. and they're actually in our pews kind of thinning out, too, in our catholic. but i'm not going to the catholic church. drag me out of my catholic church. it's good for you. you. so i again, don't know where the heck i was going with that, but it's about character and resilience and. i and again, i think when you when you the story is our story is public because he's president you know if lying but i think that the the the book is about the magic of family and the

threads that weave the fabric of family together which our commitment and loyalty and love and heartbreak and disappointment and loss. they're the same thread that runs your families. i mean, we're not the only one. whatever hardships we've had but you've them too and it's the degree that we are willing to, understand and appreciate that about each other that will make us all better and not he's not a pie the sky idealist, but he is a believer in the better angels. and i think your quote that you said that american history, american politics is not a fairy tale. did you say? that i did. okay. well, i quoted him as you know, i love that because the first time you've ever quoted me. so that's exciting.

no, not it's it's it's a push and a pull between what? lincoln, our better angels and our worst instincts. and i think it's remarkable that we've gotten this far, honestly. but i but. i do think it is. and you don't you you and i disagreed about this before. i honestly believe something providential about. the fact that someone with the life experience, the political. was where he was in 2020, facing a again, this is not a partizan. i'm not a democrat. i'm not a republican, but i'm the constitutionalist, which is diminishing group like episcopalians these days, but that he was willing to go into the arena once more. yeah, and that was the first

time in 2020 that i was not anxious for i mean, i ran, i really and truly did run all of his campaigns for real. and because else took us seriously and we had no money, no influence, you know, no democrat party in the state and, you know, and i complete a sentence because i was with them all the time. so he could go out and meet the people. and i could run. i had no other agenda except joe and what we wanted to do. but when 20, 20 came, we no intention of running. we wanted to run in 2016 and then beau, joe's eldest child, elder son, my little kid that i got when he was three years old. and beau, he died of a terrible death. i was 46 of glioblastoma.

so you can't run for president unless you give it your whole heart, your whole soul, and the whole family's in it. well, the family couldn't do it in may of 30th, 2015. he dies. how are you going to run? how are you going to run? how? sam going to be in florida and joe is going to be in california. and you know it. we just had a mend. so it was over. we he got out. he finished being vice president and we up the biden at the university of pennsylvania for global studies biden hall at the biden school at the university of delaware domestic policy finishing cancer. it was called cancer moonshot under. we called it the cancer initiative and we're we're involved he's doing real things. and then came and he again it

goes back to being bullied. he saw those men and women coming out of the woods with tiki torches just like in nazi germany and he said i got to do it. so i look at myself in the mirror and turn away because i'm afraid i'm not going to be. and he believed and we believed that he was the right person at the right time for the right job. and we didn't we weren't like he didn't wake up in the morning wanted to help here hail to the chief and i sure as hell didn't want to wake up to that which i knew and was not disappoint it was going to be ugly, ugly, ugly. the way to get to joe was get to his family. and i said, you know, god and he said, well, i got to do it. and i said, okay then, you know, buckle up. i'm i'm with and it was very

different. i hung up my what i said i hung up my spikes to use the sporting to put on combat boots. yeah well somebody came in to run the campaign and i did what my ph.d. is not in campaign my ph.d. is in joe biden so that i could go where he was and talk about joe biden and character and why he was the right person. and listen to you and come back and say, joe, you know, i've just met somebody today and this is what and translate and knew i don't want to ruin your reputation but it's well ruined as just wonderful and in wordsmithing and believing that commitment so we ran but i mean once we said yes i was in full bore but and this next one i mean that that's going to look like mary poppins and you know

we're going to go through. but you you just can't back that i mean i'm preaching the choir i mean we're we're i'm the what you talk to. no i mean look at what you're going to hang in quarter and imprison the people who who are against you and you're going to be a dictator. and you make fun of people. i mean it. he is the biggest junkyard bully that ever existed. i will i can't even say both their names in the same sentence because it's degrading to say joe biden's name in the same sentence with his. so there you go. how has life changed for the president in being in the white house? it's an extraordinary time because of covid, it was hard to enjoy the place in the campaign.

for a man who for more than half a century lived on tactile politics. yeah. not being able to do in 2020 was hard, but is there anything different about the joe biden of 2024 than the biden of 20? no. i mean he still gets up again. it sounds so i'm trying to make him not trying to make him grin. i mean, he gets up in the morning and he thinks about what he can do to make things better. and he goes to bed at night and i mean, it weighs on him, but i talk to him frequently because he's my brother. and i said, gee, joe, what what i what else can land on your desk. and he said, wow, that's the job i signed up for. so he's not marvin marder. it's the job he knows what it is, but been up in my mind there's been a lot with with

covid there's a lot less less joe you can't do so many fun things you know when i win the white house like it doesn't matter to joe but it didn't matter me when we were inaugurated and you know, there's a parade in the gallon a ball. and i said, this is really stinks. you know, i want that parade. you know, joe didn't care if there was parade or there was a ball. he had work do. but i think and you know we weren't able to open up the white house to have people come in and enjoy it because of and up until what, a year or so. no. you know, we july 4th and it was outside. so there's not joe and joe thrives on it. listen, everybody knows he's thinks of him as a talker which you might walk away thinking this biden is also but but equally he's a listener and he

really it he listens up to what you say and to cancel the talk i mean he absorbs it and that is harder that for him for the joy he's that he loves campaigning i mean he loves to be out there and he loves the rope line and he loves the he likes doing it. and it gives him energy and it fulfills him. and there's been a whole less. and the white house is magnificent, but it's hermetically sealed. you know, it's it's a magnificent place but it's harry truman called it the crown jewel of the penal system. i, i think the obamas pretty much the it's like living in the hay-adams. yeah, right. yeah. it yes. cheaper it's public housing at its best right is what is right but nobody's whining about but it is a on a human level it is

is a different experience. what. what do you wish for over the next couple of years. i wish that we could i mean it sense civility that would be you can what i don't understand i i appreciate comprehend apprehend understand and that people do not like we don't don't want my brother to be president. they don't agree with this policy. they what for whatever reasons it's all again what i don't understand is the vitriol and the hatred i mean i think what the hell has he ever done to get that vileness? i mean, who these. yeah, i.

i don't understand that i don't like it. if you say you don't like my brother because of his position, i don't say isn't that really makes me happy but. i respect it but. there is so little respect, so little civility and it's just this small group of people who have taken taken over. i was in the airport, come here and. my colleague who's in the expression is in the audience, we had a layover in phenix and. we're going to our next to get here and he said, he stops me and he said, i just want you to know that said ceiling to get on plane there's a a man with a hat and it has f j b and there's group of men around him and you know just to be aware that says f jb frank joseph yeah yeah.

you know, and i said f jp. that was a big radio station in cincinnati. i said, what's f, g b mean? he said, valerie, and it's yeah it's yeah, screw joe biden. but and on both sides. and then in front, when i got around said ultra maga. now who does that? you know, i mean, who you know, who does that? who one these online you know with f-you c k biden a baby like one of these suits. i mean, who does that? so that, you know that doesn't i mean joe transient goes over that me i don't like i want to go up and rip that god darn hat but. yeah. i would have gotten and and it's

against what, what i really would have liked to have done, i mean i didn't want to is say what i why. yeah i would have liked to have sat next some say huck that's my brother you know so y are you wearing that hat? what that mean? hey, if i'm a point of personal privilege, you remind me of something. the book, the general lady from california. you very much channel. lady was when i was in the house. but when i was in the senate, i was no longer gentle what you just said, senator, there's a senator. the lady from gone. oh, no, lady. no, lady was just plain old senator. but but i want to tell about this because i love your passion. i love it so much. i read about it in the book when your brother joe suffered a horrible aneurysm and he was so sick, you walked into that story. i want you to share it because it's it's the same things what

you just john about this recent experience when you walked and he there was a headline on the and the president said joe biden's brain something about his brain to tell them about what you did is that he's at reed he's had an aneurysm. and you know, we don't know he's going to live or die. and then when we finally going to live is the first time i ever heard the term morbidity versus mortality. and i didn't know if he'd have, as faculties where the aneurysm was like cut open his head move some things around. so i came on sunday the family was down and jack, my husband and i drove back on sunday, took my daughter for christmas. i given tennis lessons. mommy and the daughter. i mean, we never i never knew how play tennis but because that was preppy sport but i wanted to do it for her couldn't play

tennis. i couldn't even lift the racket, left my head. so i dropped her off to the tennis and i went to local. it was a dunkin donuts place. and you know, they have the j-shaped counter and the right across the street was. a catholic church and mass had just out so that people from mass had come and there sitting down at the counter and down at the bottom there's a man and he's surrounded six or seven other guys and a quarter and they're having a good old time. there's one seat right here and they have the news journal in front of them and the headline said biden had cut open and the guy and they're laughing and one guy said and ha ha ha. i'm surprised they found anything in it. he should have died. yeah. he's my good catholic guy. so coming in from church, he should have died. and it was like an out of body. i'm drinking my coffee. and i found myself.

i got up and i walked down aisle and right to the corner and i must have been like that hot that with that commercial know everybody's quiet e.f. hutton or something yeah and everything got quiet and kind of party the way and i went up to a man at the counter and i tapped him on the shoulder. i said, valerie biden owens hmm. and, you know, it's kind of you have good wishes for my brother. and i had my coffee and i took it and i poured it. i put it down and it was like, oh, the place is silent. i got in the car picked my daughter up to go home. she didn't say a word and that and i got and my husband, jack, and i walked in the house and i saw him and i actually threw myself him. and i started to cry and i

sobbed. easily 30 minutes and i said, i done something look. and i told him what i had done and he said, no, no, no, honey you didn't do anything terrible. he said, if i had been there, i would have thrown him through the plate glass window. now that. so that. thank you for sharing. thank you for letting me ask that question. thank you. the from california as all privileges our privileges of what can we do you can what we all have to do is is remember. remember the election is about joe the election's about it's about the who lives next door it's character. it's keeping america safe and

keeping our dignity. and we have to open our silence is complicit complicity. complicity right capacity. it's also a complex but yeah so open your mouth, you know don't pour the hot water on somebody slap but but you know we got again i sound like i'm preaching but we got to speak up. we cannot be core of what as almost evil i mean i don't that person with that cap on he didn't hate joe biden he just hate it he didn't have anything you know i wouldn't have do with joe biden. i mean, joe and him, lots of reasons. but that guy hated everything. so we we got to we got to step up to plate and, you know, america's worth fighting for and so was my. thank you all thank you