Biden commemorates Memorial Day at Arlington by remembering son’s death

President Joe Biden recalled the loss nine years ago of his eldest son Beau during his Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery.

Acknowledging that his grief was not the same as that of families who lost loved ones during the course of their military service, Joe Biden told those in the audience that he understood “how hard it can be to reopen that black hole in the middle of your chest” whenever they remember them.

“As it is for so many of you, the pain of his loss is with me every day, still sharp, still clear,” he said Monday.

Beau Biden, a former Delaware state attorney general who reached the rank of major in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps before he died from brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46, was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for his yearlong service in Iraq. Joe Biden has repeated that his son’s cancer was caused by his exposure to toxic burn pits while he was abroad.

Biden also indirectly alluded to former President Donald Trump with a statement of the importance of democracy and respecting those who serve or have served.

“We gather at this sacred place for this solemn moment to remember, to honor, the sacrifice of the hundreds of thousands of women and men who have given their lives to this nation,” he said. “Each one bound by a common commitment, not to a place, not to a person, not to a president, but to an idea unlike any idea in human history: the idea of the United States.”

Earlier Monday, Biden hosted a Memorial Day breakfast at the White House for administration officials, military leadership, veterans, and Gold Star family members before taking part in the wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown, Jr.

“Thanks to our fallen, the bedrock of our liberty remains unshaken,” Brown said during the event at the nearby Memorial Amphitheater. “It’s up to us to further the cause for which our fallen died and uphold the freedoms for which they fought.”

“In the end, America’s greatest strategic asset will always be our people,” Austin said. “So let us always remember our fallen heroes and let us always strive to defend the democracy, [for] which they fought and die. They did their duty and we must too.”

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Earlier, Joe Biden marked the holiday by spending time with the widow of Beau Biden, Hallie Olivere, in Delaware on Sunday.