WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made their first joint appearance since her election loss on Monday as they celebrated Veterans Day together by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.
Biden honored the service and sacrifice of America’s military veterans, including those who paid the ultimate price, and their families, during what was his last time speaking at the cemetery’s memorial amphitheater in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the U.S. military.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to lead you, to serve you, to care for you, to defend you, just as you defended us, generation after generation after generation,” Biden said. “You are the greatest fighting force, and this is no exaggeration, the greatest fighting force in the history of the world.”
He reminisced about trips to U.S. military installations around the world, and to historic military sites like Valley Forge and Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.
Biden also announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding the types of cancer covered under the PACT Act, legislation he signed to expand health care for veterans who served on military bases where toxic smoke poured from “burn pits.”
More than 1 million veterans and families have been helped under the law, he said.
The president opened his brief remarks by saying that it is America’s “truly sacred duty” to prepare and care for those the country puts in harm’s way when they come home, or not.
“To all military families, to all those with a loved one still missing or missing, to all Americans mourning the loss of a loved one who wore the uniform: Jill and I want you to know that we see you, we thank you you and we will never stop working to fulfill our sacred obligation to you and your family,” he said.
Biden’s son, Beau, who Jill helped raise, served in the Delaware Army National Guard and deployed to Iraq for about a year in 2008. He died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46.
Biden and Harris, accompanied by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough, had solemn expressions on their faces as they approached the grave. They placed their hands over their hearts as the national anthem played before the wreath-laying ceremony, and then again as “Taps” sounded.
The president and first lady Jill Biden had hosted veterans and members of the military community at the White House before she and Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, left Washington for the sacred cemetery across the Potomac River.
It was the first time Biden and Harris were seen together in public since the vice president lost the election to former President Donald Trump last week.
Before leaving the cemetery, Harris and Emhoff visited a grave. The White House has not said who is buried there.
After the celebration, Biden traveled home to Wilmington, Delaware, for reasons not yet disclosed by the White House.
