Barack Obama and Joe Biden had one last joint public appearance as president and vice president Thursday afternoon. The gathering was billed loosely as a tribute to Biden, and Obama heaped praise upon his co-pilot of the past eight years calling him a “lion of American history.” “To know Joe Biden is to know love without pretense, service without self-regard, and to live life fully,” Obama said. Biden accepted the praise tearfully before Obama offered one last surprise.
“For your faith in your fellow Americans, for your love of country and for your lifetime of service that will endure through the generations, I’d like to ask the military aide to join us on stage,” Obama said in the ceremony. “For my final time as President, I am pleased to award our nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
“I had no inkling,” Biden said after being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. “I thought we were going … to toast one another and say what an incredible journey it has been.
“I just hope that the asterisk in history that is attached to my name when they talk about this presidency is that I can say I was part of the journey of a remarkable man who did remarkable things for this country,” Biden said.
