What To Know
- Joe Biden appeared on Jay Leno’s YouTube show Monday.
- Amid the extended conversation, the former president got choked up and let the curse words fly.
Former President Joe Biden was the featured guest of Jay Leno‘s YouTube show, Jay Leno’s Garage, on Monday (June 15), and the two chatted up a storm while driving around in Biden’s prized 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray convertible.
Among the topics discussed during their extended ride — which, of course, included a stop for ice cream — was the impact Biden’s presidency had on protected lands in California, his preference for American-made cars, his million-plus miles traveled on the Amtrak, and one tender discussion of Biden’s late son, Beau Biden.
While traveling in the sunshine, with Secret Service in tow, Biden told the former The Late Show host that he wished Leno had gotten to meet Beau before sharing a story of remembrance that nearly brought him to tears.
In it, Biden recalled the moment his son revealed he was joining the National Guard, explaining, “85% of everyone in Iraq is National Guard and mostly Delaware [residents]. How can I be home? I’m 41 years old.” The story then shifted forward to the moment when, after Beau returned home and was diagnosed with brain cancer, he urged his father not to give up on his career due to grief. After a dinner at Beau’s house, he told the then-vice president, “Dad, I’m not afraid of dying. It’ll be OK. I know I’m going, all right, Dad? And I know what you’re going to do. You’re going to quit when I die. Dad, look at me. Look at me, Dad, god dammit… give me your word as a Biden you will not quit when I die.”
That wasn’t the only time in the interview Biden used profanity to illustrate passion about a subject. He also used the phrase when discussing his own opinion of the value of labor unions, particularly in the automobile industry. First, Leno recalled the time he put on a free show in Detroit for any workers who’d been impacted by layoffs in the industry, and despite warnings that it would be “bedlam,” he found that the audience was perfectly behaved. Leno then said, ‘You realize that all people want is to just give them a break.” To that, Biden said, “That’s exactly right, god dammit.”
Watch the full interview embedded above.