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Emotional Biden recalls family tragedy
Friday, 3 October, 2008
An emotional Joe Biden fights back tears. (Getty)
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Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden choked up during his debate with Republican rival Sarah Palin as he recalled his tragic personal story.
"The notion somehow because I'm a man I don't know what it's like to raise two kids alone, I don't know what it's like to have a child you're not sure is going to make it," he said.
VIDEO: Biden chokes up over lost loved ones
His voice cracked and he paused to compose himself, before adding: "I understand, I understand".
Just weeks after his election to the US Senate in 1972, his first wife Neilia, and 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car accident while out Christmas shopping.
His sons, Beau, then aged three, and Hunt, then aged two, were critically injured in the crash.
Mr Biden was later sworn in as a senator at the hospital bedside of one of his sons, and he still refuses to work on December 18, the day of the accident.
Before the debate, discussion had centered on how the veteran senator would deal with his younger, less experienced female opponent, with fears among Democrats that he would appear bullying or condescending.
Biden was responding to comments from Palin about her connection with the heartland of America through her experience of "being a mom, one very concerned about a son in the war, about a special needs child, about kids heading off to college, how are we going to pay those tuition bills?"
Source: SBS/AFP
