Beau Biden "made you want to be a better person," President Obama said Saturday at a funeral for Vice President Joe Biden's 46-year-old son, who lost his battle with brain cancer on May 30.
"He did in 46 years what most of us couldn't do in 146. He left nothing in the tank," Obama said, his eyes welling up with tears. "That's what our country was built on. Men like Beau."
VP Biden Leans on Faith and Family in Mourning Son Beau Tributes and Condolences Pour In For Beau Biden Beau Biden Dies of Brain Cancer“We do not know how long we’ve got here,” the president told a congregation of about 1,000 at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Wilmington, Delaware. “What we do know is that with every minute that we've got, we can live our lives in a way that takes nothing for granted, we can love deeply, we can help people who need help, we can teach our children what matters.”
"The son of a senator, a major in the army, the most popular elected official in Delaware -- I'm sorry Joe," Obama laughed.
Beau Biden, who had been considering a run for governor in 2016, served as the state's attorney general for eight years.
As a member of the Delaware Army National Guard, he deployed to Iraq in 2008, just days after his father's first vice presidential debate. He earned earned a Bronze Star, and was awarded the Legion of Merit on Saturday.
"My brother is not defined by his extraordinary resume," Beau's younger brother, Hunter, said Saturday. "He is defined by the quality of his character."
"Beau was someone who cared, someone who charmed you and disarmed you and put you at ease," the commander-in-chief said. "When he had to attend a fancy fundraiser with people who took themselves too seriously, he'd walk over to you and whisper something widely in appropriate in your ear.
When he was 3 years old, just weeks after his father was elected senator but before he was sworn in to office, he lost his mother and 1-year-old sister in a car accident that left him and his brother, Hunter, gravely injured.
A grief-stricken Sen. Biden was sworn into office at his bedside, and made the daily commute to and from Washington to kiss Hunter and Beau tonight.
"Rather than use his childhood trauma as justification for a life of self-pity or self-centeredness, that very young boy made a very grown-up decision: He would live a life of meaning," Obama said of Beau. "From his dad, he learned how to get back up when life knocked him down ... He learned how to make everybody else feel like we matter, because his dad taught him that everyone matters."
"He even looked and sounded like Joe, although I think Jill will be the first to admit that Beau was an upgrade. Joe 2.0," Obama said.
The president, who noted that the first family has “become part of the Biden clan,” promised to be there for the vice president, his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, Beau’s widow, Hallie, and his two surviving children, Hunter and Natalie.
“My word as a Biden,” Obama promised. “Joe, you are my brother, and I’m grateful every day that you’ve got such a big heart.”
Mourners at the church Saturday included former President Bill Clinton, Sec. Hillary Clinton, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, Delaware Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and a number of Cabinet Secretaries, Ambassadors, and members of Congress.