Vice President Biden and Beau Biden in 2008.(Photo: File photo by Matthew Cavanaugh, epa)
Members of both parties came together in grief Sunday to express condolences to Vice President Biden and his family over the death of son Beau from brain cancer.
"Like his dad, Beau was a good, big-hearted, devoutly Catholic and deeply faithful man, who made a difference in the lives of all he touched — and he lives on in their hearts," President Obama said in a statement.
Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, noted the Biden family has been touched by tragedy before, including the 1972 death of the vice president's first wife and their 1-year-old daughter.
"I'm going to pray for him because he's had a lifetime of tears," Kasich said on NBC's
Meet The Press. "God bless you, Joe."
Beau Biden, 46, a twice-elected attorney general of Delaware who had contemplated a run for governor in 2016, died Saturday after a relapse of brain cancer he had battled for years.
USA TODAY
Beau Biden, son of vice president, dies of brain cancer
"The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words," the vice president said in a statement. "We know that Beau's spirit will live on in all of us — especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter."
Speaking for his family, Biden said: "Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known."
Funeral arrangements are pending.
The vice president lost his first wife, Neilia, and their 1-year-old daughter, Naomi, in a car accident in 1972, shortly after his first election as senator from Delaware. The accident badly injured the Bidens' young sons, Beau and Hunter.
Biden took his first oath of office as senator at his sons' bedside.
The latest tragedy in the Biden family brought together lawmakers from across the political spectrum.
Former president Bill Clinton and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called Beau Biden "a son to be proud of, a brother to cherish, a husband and father to love and be grateful for.
"The pain of his loss is so great because his life was so large and good," the Clintons said.
Sen. Ted Cruz. R-Texas, a Republican presidential candidate and frequent critic of the Obama administration, lauded Beau Biden as "a longtime public servant" and an Iraq War veteran.
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"As the parents of two precious little girls, Heidi and I can only imagine the grief of losing a child — something no parent should have to do," Cruz said. "We would like to extend our deepest sympathies and our prayers to Joe and Jill, the entire Biden family, and all those who knew and loved Beau."
Out of respect for the Biden family, the president and first lady Michelle Obama canceled a White House reception planned for Sunday in honor of Ford's Theatre.
In his statement, Obama quoted the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats: "I have believed the best of every man. And find that to believe it is enough to make a bad man show him at his best or even a good man swing his lantern higher."
Said the president: "Beau Biden believed the best of us all. For him, and for his family, we swing our lanterns higher."
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