"My son was better than me. And he was better than me in almost every way." – Vice President Joe Biden
Vice President Joe Biden appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” Thursday night for an interview that surprised many with its focus on personal loss and faith, rather than politics.
While there was expectation that Biden would use the interview to promote a possible run for president in 2016, Stephen Colbert said that he, “Wanted to know a little bit more about who Joe Biden is,” and the interview instead focused on Biden’s personal loss — his son Beau Biden passed away from brain caner in May, and his first wife Neilia Hunter and infant daughter Naomi Biden were killed in a car crash in 1972 — and his attempts to come to terms with the loss.
Biden emotionally remembered his son and the person he turned out to be. “My dad had an expression,” Biden reflected. “[He] used to say ‘You know when you’re a success as a parent when you turn and look [at a] child and know they turned out better than you,’…my son was better than me. And he was better than me in almost every way.”
Colbert asked Biden how his faith — both Biden and Colbert and practicing Roman Catholics — had helped him deal with the tragedy. “For me, my religion is just an enormous sense of solace,” Biden says. “What my faith has done is it sort of takes everything about my life, with my parents, and my siblings, and all the comforting things. And all the comforting things, and all the good things that have happened have happened around the culture of my religion and the theology of my religion.”
Colbert himself has suffered great personal loss, losing his father and two older brothers in a plane crash when he was just 10 years old. When his mother passed away in June of 2013, he delivered an emotional tribute to his mother on his program "The Colbert Report."
Biden and Colbert - who are both Irish-American - reflected on the roles children play in recovering from loss. "I had to take care of her," Stephen says about his mother, "I would say I raised my mom." Biden says that he understands that, and that, "My boys raised me."
While of course there was of course some political talk with Colbert himself at times seeming to urge Biden to run, Biden declined to give any firm answers, instead saying that he’s not sure he’s emotionally ready for the task of being president in the wake of the loss of his son.
In the end, it was a remarkably heartfelt and candid interview between two men who shared a devout faith, heritage, and loss. As Colbert says at the end of the interview, “What’s the use of being Irish if you don’t know that life is going to break your heart.”
Freeman Stevenson is a staff writer for Deseretnews.com. Email Freeman at fstevenson@deseretdigital.com