Obama honors ‘brother’ Biden with surprise award
WASHINGTON — After two presidential campaigns together, countless one-onone meetings and the forging of a bromance that inspired countless internet memes, President Barack Obama had an honor in store Thursday for Vice President Joe Biden: the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“This is an extraordinary man with an extraordinary career in public service,” Obama said in a glowing tribute during a surprise ceremony in the White House’s State Dining Room.
Obama awarded Biden the nation’s highest civilian honor with distinction, an added level of veneration offered for the first time by Obama and only once by each of the last three presidents, to Pope John Paul II, former President Ronald Reagan and retired Gen. Colin Powell. Obama also added a more personal — and to Biden, probably more meaningful — honorific, referring to Biden as his “brother.”
“It was 8 years ago that I chose Joe to be my vice president. There has not been a single moment since that time that I have doubted the wisdom of that decision,” Obama said. “It was the best possible choice, not just for me but for the American people.”
Initially, Biden had doubts, thinking he could do more to advance Obama’s agenda as a senior member of the Senate. After the two met to discuss the vice presidency, one of Biden’s aides remarked that it seemed as if Biden had been trying to persuade Obama not to pick him. “Well, it’s true,” Biden said. On Thursday, before an audience of current and former aides and administration officials, Biden shared the moment that his doubts were put to rest: when he saw his young grandchildren having a sleepover with Obama’s daughters at the hotel where the families stayed at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
In a recent interview in his West Wing office, Biden recalled some of the conditions he placed on his acceptance: “I’m not wearing any funny hats, and two, I’m not changing my brand.”
He also recalled an early argument the two had after Biden, not for the first time, seemed to stray publicly from the campaign’s message. But that spat, and others that would follow, were the kind that brothers would have, he said.
“The deal we made was, we’d be completely straight with one another,” Biden said. From the beginning, he wanted to be the last person in the room anytime Obama was facing a tough decision to make his own case but would accept the outcome no matter what. Obama agreed to the deal.