Biden surprised with high honor
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to a shocked Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday at the White House.
Biden and the president had gathered for what the White House had described as a final tribute to the vice president.
The event began with a playful and heartfelt tribute from Obama to one of his closest friends and confidantes in Washington. As he finished his remarks, the president asked one of his military aides to come to the stage.
“For the final time as president I am pleased to award our nation’s highest civilian honor,” Obama began as a Marine officer bearing the medal stood by.
Biden immediately spun around, turning his back to the crowd, and wiped his face and eyes with his handkerchief. The president bestowed the medal “with distinction,” an additional level of veneration that his three immediate predecessors had reserved for only three others — Pope John Paul II, former president Ronald Reagan and Gen. Colin Powell.
“I had no inkling,” Biden said after the medal was draped around his neck. “I thought we were going ... to toast one another and say what an incredible journey it has been.”
In his remarks, Biden praised Obama for serving the nation with dignity and insisted that he was not worthy of the honor.
“I don’t deserve this,” the vice president said repeatedly.
Obama described Biden as a “lion of American history” and praised his long service in the Senate. As vice president, Biden’s influence spanned both domestic and international policy initiatives. Biden was a critical voice in crafting strategy in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and in encouraging Obama to send Navy SEALs on a mission to capture or kill Osama bin Laden in 2011.