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Biden Chokes Up in Kennedy Tribute

Discusses 'friend,' 'anchor' at energy department event

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 26, 2009 12:28 PM CDT

(Newser) – At an energy department event today, Vice President Biden departed from the planned topic for an emotional speech on his “friend” and “anchor” Ted Kennedy, ABC News reports. Kennedy, with whom Biden served as a senator for 36 years, “made everybody he worked with bigger, both his adversaries as well as his allies,” Biden said, pausing throughout the speech and wiping his eyes.

Throughout Biden’s adult life, he said, Kennedy was always ready “to encourage, to counsel, to be empathetic, to lift up.” Kennedy was there to support him “when my wife and daughter were killed in an accident. He was on the phone with me literally every day in the hospital.” Biden said he’d spoken to Vicki Kennedy today, and she’d said, “he was ready to go, Joe, but we were not ready to let him go.”

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Ted Kennedy talks with Joe Biden as AG Alberto Gonzales testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington Thursday, April 19 2007 about the dismissal of eight US attorneys. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)

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Biden Chokes Up in Kennedy Tribute