WASHINGTON –
U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris on Monday made their first joint look since her U.S. choice loss after they noticed Veterans Day collectively by laying a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The pair then headed to the ceremonial amphitheater at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery, the place Biden honored the service and sacrifice of America’s army veterans — together with those that paid the final word value, and their households — throughout what was his ultimate time talking there as as commander in chief of the U.S. army.
“It has been the best honour of my life, to guide you, to serve you, to take care of you, to defend you, simply as you defended us, technology after technology after technology,” Biden mentioned. “You’re the best combating drive, and this isn’t hyperbole, the best combating drive within the historical past of the world.”
He reminisced about journeys to U.S. army installations around the globe, and to such historic army websites as Valley Forge and Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.
Biden additionally introduced that the Division of Veterans Affairs is increasing the sorts of cancers coated beneath the PACT Act, laws he signed to develop well being care companies for veterans who served at army bases the place poisonous smoke billowed from “burn pits.”
Over 1 million veterans and households have been helped beneath the legislation, he mentioned.
The president opened his temporary remarks by stating that America’s “really sacred obligation” is to organize these it sends into hurt’s approach and take care of them after they come house, or do not.
“To all of the army households, to all these with a beloved one nonetheless lacking or unaccounted for, to all Individuals grieving the lack of a beloved one who wore the uniform, Jill and I need you to know we see you, we thanks and we’ll by no means cease working to satisfy our sacred obligation to you and your loved ones,” he mentioned.
The president’s son, Beau, who first woman Jill Biden helped increase, served within the Delaware Military Nationwide Guard and deployed to Iraq in 2008 for a couple of yr. He died of mind most cancers in 2015 on the age of 46.
Earlier, on the Tomb of the Unkown Soldier, Biden and Harris, accompanied by Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough, wore solemn expressions on their faces. They positioned their arms over their hearts because the nationwide anthem performed earlier than the wreath-laying, and once more afterward as “Faucets” sounded.
The president and first woman had hosted veterans and members of the army group on the White Home earlier than they and Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, departed for the hallowed burial floor throughout the Potomac River from Washington.
It was the primary time that Biden and Harris had been seen collectively in public because the vp misplaced final week’s election to former President Donald Trump, although Biden had spoken to each Trump and Harris by cellphone. The president plans to host the president-elect on the White Home on Wednesday.
Earlier than leaving the cemetery, Harris and Emhoff visited a gravesite. The White Home didn’t say who’s buried there.
After the observance, Biden flew to his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware however deliberate to be again in Washington later Monday.
