Last Monday, Pete Buttigieg endorsed Joe Biden, but it was the former Vice President who actually paid the greater compliment to his one-time rival.
As Buttigieg joined Biden at the Chicken Scratch restaurant to officially support him ahead of Biden’s Monday night rally, the former vice-president said Buttigieg reminded him of his late son Beau Biden.
“I don’t think I’ve ever done that before, but he reminds me of my son Beau,” Biden said, looking on at Buttigieg.
At the suggestion the former mayor lowered his head, evidently dismayed by the strength of what Biden was doing.
He continued, “I know that may not imply much to most people, but to me it is the biggest compliment I can extend to any man or woman.”
Beau Biden, a veteran of the Iraq War and former Delaware attorney general, died in 2015 following a long struggle with brain cancer.
Joe Biden commented on the effect that the death of Beau had on both his political and private life, sometimes referring to his late son as “his soul.”
“The way I was able to deal with when my wife was killed and my daughter was killed and then my son died, I just managed to deal with it by knowing that they were part of my being,” Biden said with tears in his eyes during a South Carolina CNN town hall.
At the same event, Biden was reflecting on how his son had urged him to remain engaged and not retreat into himself right before he died. Biden said he wakes up every day, and “I ask myself, I hope he’s proud of me today.”
Buttigieg concluded his campaign on Sunday, and on Monday endorsed Biden.
“I’m looking for a leader, I’m looking for a president to pull out what’s best in every one of us,” Buttigieg said on Monday in Dallas, Texas. “And I’m asking everyone that was part of my campaign to support me because we find the leader in vice president, Joe Biden, soon to be president.”
Biden concluded with a nod to the potential of Buttigieg. “I just can’t tell you how much I appreciate it,” he said, “because I assure you, you’ll end up seeing a heck of much more Pete than you are me in your lifetime.”