Vice President Joe Biden was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom today by President Barack Obama in a surprise White House ceremony.
Always emotional, Joe Biden cried openly during much of the 38-minute ceremony. (To see the surprise moment when President Obama announces the award, jump to the 13:15 mark.) President Obama not only awarded Biden the nation’s highest civilian honor, but added “with distinction” — a special designation given only three times previously, to President Ronald Reagan, to Pope John Paul II and to General Colin Powell.
President Obama called Joe Biden a “lion of American history” and “the best vice president America’s ever had.” (He also joked that the ceremony would give the Internet one more chance to talk about their “bromance.”) In return, Biden told Obama that he hoped history would simply mention him as an asterisk in Obama’s remarkable presidency.
An amazing ceremony at the end of a very eventful eight years.
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