The first anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing was today, and Vice President Joe Biden appeared at the memorial ceremony to deliver a speech. While most of Biden’s speech went smoothly, he hit a bump in the road at one point left many people shocked and outraged.
An estimated 3,000 people attended the Boston Marathon Memorial today, including survivors, family of the three people that lost their lives, and first responders. Several people spoke at the memorial ceremony, including former Boston Mayor Tom Menino, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and Vice President Joe Biden.
When it was Biden’s turn to speak, he told the crowd, “Even though I’m not a Boston fan, I love you guys, man.” No problem there, but then the vice president followed that up with telling the survivors, “My God, you have survived and you have soared…it was worth it. I mean this sincerely, just to hear each of you speak.” The “it was worth it” remark there sparked confusion and outrage on Twitter.
What an utter embarrassment. RT @RickLeventhal: VP Biden just told Boston bombing survivors: "It was worth it"
— Julia Porterfield (@JK_Porterfield) April 15, 2014
and our PITY! He's in serious trouble and it's time for Joe to step down. This is horrendous for him to say this! http://t.co/RGiXGlL3Dj
— MAGGIE (@tweet2u2) April 15, 2014
Check out Biden’s speech at the Boston Marathon Memorial below. Skip to the 0:54 mark to hear the offending comment.
A lot of people either missed or are ignoring the “I mean this sincerely, just to hear you speak” part of the comment and are assuming that Joe Biden means that it was a good thing the tragedy happened. Admittedly, Biden has made his share of blunders as vice president, but it’s probably safe to assume that he was telling the victims he was glad he made the trip to Boston to hear what they had to say. Judging from the reaction from the crowd, they didn’t take Biden’s comments in a negative way, so that’s something, at least.
Fortunately, the rest of Biden’s speech went fine and nothing else he had to say contributed to further Twitter outrage:
Next Monday, on Patriots’ Day, when I’m told up to 36,000 people will line up to start the marathon, you will send a resounding message around the world not just to rest of the world, but to the terrorists that we will never yield. We will never cower. America will never, ever, ever stand down. We are Boston. We are America. We respond. We endure. We overcome. And we own the finish line.
"We are Boston. We are America.”-Vice President @JoeBiden: http://t.co/FiBlcNtjLw pic.twitter.com/c7rTo9DijH
— Universal Sports (@universalsports) April 15, 2014
The 2014 Boston Marathon will be held Monday, April 21. Hear from two runners that participated in the Boston Marathon last year in the video below.
Image via YouTube