Former Vice President Joe Biden is recalling a personal tragedy that deeply influenced his faith in answering how his faith will help to make decisions for the nation.
Rev. Anthony Thompson, a pastor from Charleston, S.C — who lost his wife in a mass shooting in 2015 at a church in South Carolina — asked Biden at Wednesday night’s CNN town hall, “What is your faith? And how would you use your faith in making decisions for our nation?”
In response, the 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful recalled losing his wife and daughter in 1972, and son in 2015.
He noted that after visiting the church in 2015 with former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, he went back a second time to the church in South Carolina because he had just lost his son.
“I wanted some hope,” Biden said, adding, “Because what you all did was astounding.”
Watch the video below:
"My heart goes out to you": Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden reflected on how personal tragedy has affected his faith while connecting with a pastor whose wife died in the 2015 mass shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina #CNNTownHall https://t.co/Hb0AEn3uWV pic.twitter.com/eSdb9jIbS2
— CNN (@CNN) February 27, 2020
Biden continued to note he is a “practicing Catholic,” and quoted Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, “Faith sees best in the dark.”
“For me, it’s important because it gives me some reason to have hope and purpose,” Biden said of his faith, adding, “But the way I’ve been able to deal with when my wife was killed and my daughter were killed and then my son died, I’ve only been able to deal with it by realizing they’re a part of my being.”
He added, tearing up:
“My son Beau is my soul, and what I found was I had to find purpose. … Every day I get up I literally … I ask myself, ‘I hope he’s proud of me today,’ because he asked me when he was dying, ‘Promise me, dad … I know no one loves me more than you do, dad. But promise me you’ll stay engaged.'”
Biden’s son, Beau Biden died at 46 years old in May of 2015 from brain cancer.