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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Biden eulogizes Ethel Kennedy, whose late husband he counted among his
political inspirations, as ‘a hero in her own right’
By Michael Williams, CNN
Updated:
5:32 PM EDT, Wed October 16, 2024
Source: CNN
on Wednesday eulogized , the human rights activist and widow of Sen.
Robert F. Kennedy, as “a hero in her own right,” remembering her
decades of public service and personal friendship to him and his
family.
“She got me through a time I didn’t want to stick around,” Biden
said at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington,
referencing the aftermath of the 1972 crash that killed his first wife
and daughter and left his two sons seriously injured shortly after he
had been elected to the Senate.
The president added: “You know, the fact is, like she did for the
country, Ethel helped my family find a way forward with principle and
purpose.”
Kennedy, who died last week at age 96, was one of the last vestiges of
the “Camelot” era that encompassed her brother-in-law John F.
Kennedy’s time as president until his 1963 assassination. Robert
Kennedy, who served as attorney general during his brother’s
presidency before being elected to the US Senate from New York in 1964,
was himself in 1968.
Biden has frequently spoken about being inspired by Robert Kennedy –
whose legacy served as the lodestar for his own political career – to
leave the prestigious white-collar Delaware law firm he joined shortly
after graduating law school to become a public defender. “I’ve done
so in large part because I thought that’s something your dad would
have done,” he after a large portion of the family publicly endorsed
his presidential campaign.
Biden has often he had as a young man entering politics. He has kept
busts of both on his desk in the Oval Office during his time as
president: One of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and one of Bobby
Kennedy.
Speaking at Ethel Kennedy’s funeral on Wednesday, Biden recalled
receiving letters from her after his inauguration in 2021 and
Valentine’s Day that year.
The Valentine’s Day card, he recalled, featured a picture of them
surrounded by hearts. It read: “I’m not Biden my time waiting for
your Valentine / Because he’s no ordinary Joe.”
“I’ve received a lot of honors in my life,” Biden said, “but
that might be the best one I’ve ever received.”
The ties between the Kennedys and Bidens, the only two Catholic
presidential families in American history, run deep. Several members of
the Kennedys, who remain a deeply influential force in American
Democratic politics, endorsed Biden’s run for reelection earlier this
year. In doing so, they also denounced the decision of Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. – Ethel Kennedy’s second-eldest son – to launch a
third-party bid against him.
After Biden stepped aside from the presidential race in July, members
of the family went on to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. RFK Jr.
also in August and endorsed former President Donald Trump. Kennedy
attended his mother’s funeral, though he and Biden did not appear to
interact.
Neither families are strangers to profound personal tragedy.
Speaking on the brain cancer diagnosis his son, Beau Biden, received
after returning from an overseas deployment, Biden told the crowd, his
voice breaking: “Your mom was there then, too.” Beau Biden died
from cancer in 2015.
“To the Kennedy family,” Biden said, “the Biden family is here
for you, as you’ve always been for us.”
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