Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s wife, Jill Biden, painted a personal portrait of her husband and family tonight, striking a deeply unifying tone in her virtual address to the Democratic National Convention.
“How do you make a broken family whole?” Jill Biden said, speaking from Brandywine High School in Wilmington, Del., where she formerly worked as a teacher. “The same way you make a nation whole. With love and understanding—and with small acts of kindness. With bravery. With unwavering faith.”
She offered an intimate glimpse into her experience creating a blended family with Biden and his sons, Hunter and Beau, while laying out a plan to unite the country.
“I never imagined, at the age of 26, I would be asking myself: How do you make a broken family whole? Still, Joe always told the boys, ‘Mommy sent Jill to us’ — and how could I argue with her?” she said. “We found that love holds a family together. Love makes us flexible and resilient. It allows us to become more than ourselves—together. And though it can’t protect us from the sorrows of life, it gives us refuge—a home.”
The former vice president made a surprise appearance at the end of the speech, hugging his wife and telling viewers, “The truth is, she’s the strongest person I know.”
WATCH: Jill Biden Discusses Her Husband Joe
Prior to delivering her address, Biden was introduced by a series of video clips filmed at home with her family, giving viewers a personal look at the woman working to be the first lady.
“I would say she’s not your average grandmother,” said granddaughter Naomi Biden. “She’s the grandmother that wakes you up at what was it? 5 am on Christmas Eve to go to Soul Cycle.”
Hunter Biden, who was not interviewed for the piece, was featured in a clip from Beau Biden’s funeral, expressing his gratitude to Jill Biden.
“Mom, it’s your strength that holds this family together,” he said. “And I know that you will make us whole again.”
The episode capped off the second night of the Democratic National Convention, which sought to give viewers a glimpse into Biden’s character.
Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), discussed Biden’s decades-long bond with McCain in a video dubbed “An Unlikely Friendship.”
Biden was formally nominated as the Democratic Party presidential nominee Tuesday night, as the traditional roll call vote was done by video messages filmed all around the United States and territories.
Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania cast the Keystone State’s votes in front of Biden’s Scranton childhood home.
While Sen. Bernie Sanders, who retained his delegates until tonight, stood with wife Jane Biden, in a field in Vermont as Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman announced that state’s totals.
Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who became a national figure when he condemned Donald Trump’s Muslim ban at the 2016 Democratic National Convention spoke on behalf of Virginia.
‘He’s a decent compassionate man,’ Khan said of Biden.
There were cameos from former Biden rivals: former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaking from Indiana and Sen. Amy Klobuchar speaking from Minnesota and Rep. Tim Ryan speaking from Ohio.
Tom Vilsack and his wife Christie cast their votes from an Iowa field, and asked for the country’s help after the recent series of storms to damage the state.
Rep. John Lewis was kept alive starting with the first votes, Alabama’s, which Rep. Terri Sewell announced in front of the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Washington, D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser stood on a building overlooking Black Lives Matter Plaza, the last public place Lewis was photographed.
While State Sen. Nikema Williams, running for Lewis’ Congressional district, spoke in front of a mural of the late congressman to cast Georgia’s votes for the nomination.
Some delegates cast their votes in front of famous landmarks, like Rep. Dina Titus did at the Las Vegas sign to represent Nevada.
While North Dakota’s delegate, Geraldine Waller, a meatpacking plant employee, was seemingly positioned in front of her house.
‘They call us essential workers, but they treat us like expendable,’ she said, arguing Biden would treat workers better.
Another essential worker, Scheena Iyane Tannis, represented New York, shouting ‘It’s Joe Time!’
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Trump held his disastrous June 20 rally, party leader Alicia Andrews brought up the Tulsa race riots as she cast her state’s vote.
College student Keely Sage cast Tennessee’s votes from the historic Hermitage Hotel, where suffragettes cheered 100 years ago Tuesday when the state got the 19th Amendment, allowing some American women the right to vote, over the line.
The tour of the U.S. ended back in Delaware as Gov. John Carney and Sen. Tom Carper stood at Biden’s favorite Wilmington Amtrak station to make the former vice president’s nomination official.
In the Wilmington school where Jill Biden would later speak, Joe Biden and Jill were feted with confetti from daughter Ashley and their grandchildren Finnegan Biden, Hunter Biden, Natalie Biden, Naomi Biden and Maisy Biden.
‘Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart. Thank you all. Means the world to me and my family. And I’ll see you on Thursday. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,’ Joe Biden said.
Earlier, former President Bill Clinton backed Biden by taking on President Donald Trump, accusing him of spending ‘hours a day watching TV.’
Clinton called Trump’s Oval Office ‘chaos.’
Also, progressive firebrand AOC had helped nominate Sanders, who came up short in delegates and endorsed Biden in April.
‘In a time when millions of people in the United States are looking for deep, systemic solutions to our crises of mass evictions, unemployment and lack of healthcare… out of a love of all people, I hereby second the nomination of Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont for President of the United States of America,’ Ocasio-Cortez said.
Two prominent members of the Kennedy clan, President John F. Kennedy’s namesake grandson Jack Schlossberg and daughter Caroline Kennedy, also endorsed Biden.
usa IS CENTENLY an interesting nation
Jan Lanser
Holland