Glimpses of Joe Biden
It is 2017. Walking home in a snowstorm, I have been hit by a car and badly injured; I could have been killed. I wake up in the hospital, with plenty of broken bones, unable to stand, and hooked up to all sorts of things. The phone rings. My mind is blurry, but the voice is unmistakable. It is Joe Biden. “Cass, I hear you got hit by car. How are you doing?” I mumble something like, “Not great. I can’t walk, but I do remember your saying, ‘if I can walk, I’ll run.’ I hope you do.” He laughs. He has all the time in the world. He stays on the phone with me a good while.
It is 1987. Robert Bork has been nominated to the Supreme Court. A voluble, high energy, youthful senator invites me to DC to talk to him about constitutional law. He is focused on privacy. He wants to discuss the Ninth Amendment. He is intent. He talks a lot. He absorbs information in a hurry. He is curious. He likes talking about James Madison. He is quick to smile. He is a lawyer. He is more moderate than his friend, Ted Kennedy. He doesn’t say an unkind word about anyone. He has all the time in the world.
It is 2013. My wife and I bring our son Declan, four years old, to the White House to see President Obama. After the meeting, we run into the Vice President. He stops to talk to Declan. He speaks to Declan as if he is the only person in the world. He tells him stories. He makes him laugh. Joe Biden’s advisers say, “Mr. Vice President, you have a meeting with the President, and you’re going to be late.” Joe Biden ignores them. They persist. Joe Biden says, “I’m talking to Declan!”
It is 1991. Joe Biden invites me to DC (it might have been Delaware) to talk about the future of the judiciary and constitutional law. He greets me as if we are old friends: “Cass!” He wants to discuss the Due Process Clause. He is interested in originalism and what it is all about. He doesn’t much like originalism; he is worried about its consequences. He thinks that the Constitution isn’t frozen in time. He asks tough questions. He likes to laugh.
It is 2016. My wife is the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and the ambassador lives, by tradition, in the Waldorf Astoria, in a large apartment with a bedroom in which the Vice President also stays, by tradition, when he comes to New York. Joe Biden and Jill Biden are staying with us, as are my Irish in-laws. My father-in-law, Eddie, is awestruck to be staying in the same apartment with the Vice President. At breakfast, the Vice President and Dr. Biden come by to say hello. Joe Biden gets into a long, laughter-filled discussion with Eddie. They are like lifelong friends, both Irish. Dr. Biden is as nice as she can be, but she is not unaware that she and her husband are supposed to be somewhere else. She stands to the side. She struggles to get him to leave the discussion with Eddie.
It is 2022. There is a state dinner at the White House, with a receiving line. I have not seen Joe Biden for a few years. He has to keep track of countless people, and it’s a big dinner. How can he possibly remember everyone? As soon as I approach him and President Macron, I gear up to reintroduce myself. Joe Biden cuts me off and says: “Cass! How are you, man?” He then grabs my arm and recites my biography, in some detail, to Macron. The conversation goes on for a long time, even though he has a lot of people to see. Here’s a photo, when Joe Biden is telling Macron details about my life that I only vaguely remember:
7. It is 2015. I am having dinner with two of the Vice President’s advisers. One of them tells this story: “Biden was at a fundraiser with about 50 donors the other might. He received, as usual, brief biographical accounts of each of them. One of them recently lost her husband. At the fundraiser, he goes right up to her and asks, ‘How are you coping?’ She says, ‘Not well.’ He says, ‘Do you ever think you can’t go on?’ She says, ‘Absolutely.’ He says, ‘I have a number for you. If you ever feel like you can’t go on, call it.’” The phone number? It’s Biden’s personal cell phone. The adviser adds: “He does that a lot.”
8. It is 1991. I am testifying on the Violence Against Women Act. Joe Biden, the Chairman, says this as he introduces me: “I had the pleasure of being at your law school, Professor Sunstein, and was able to spend three or four hours lecturing and then being lectured to by a group of students who I found to be extremely informative. I was very impressed.” Joe Biden asks me a host of specific, sharp, probing questions. He is deeply committed to the Violence Against Women Act. He wants to get it right. He wants it to become law.
9. It is 1987. We are discussing individual rights and the arc of constitutional history. Joe Biden is trying to capture the core of the privacy right. He has all the time in the world. He suddenly says this: “You know what it’s really about? Dignity. That’s what it’s about. The dignity that each of us has.”
Put politics to one side, if you can. You know what Joe Biden’s life has been about? You know why he is the first person to call people who lie, smashed up, in hospital rooms? You know why he has all the time in the world for children and for the elderly, even if they are strangers? Dignity. The dignity that each of us has.
Thank you so much for this. I’m crying so many different types of tears. Hope everyone reads this.