Ashley Biden, US President Joe Biden's daughter, delivered an emotional tribute to her father, President Joe Biden, highlighting his courage, resilience, and his role as a devoted family man, at the 2024 Democratic National Convention on August 20, People.com reported.
Opening her remarks, Ashley, 43, recounted a story from her 8th birthday, when her father, now 81, travelled from Washington, D.C., to their home in Wilmington, Delaware, to surprise her and sing "Happy Birthday" around her cake before quickly returning to the capital to finish urgent Senate business, the report added.
"Joe Biden is the O.G. girl dad," Ashley said. “He wasn't just a girl dad. I could see that he valued and trusted women. How he listened to his mother, how he believed in his sister. And most of all, how he respected my mother's career,” Ashley was quoted as saying in the report.
Ashley also spoke about the president's emotional presence on her wedding day, when he walked her down the aisle and told her he would always be her best friend, as per the report.
Addressing the crowd, Ashley emphasised her father's resilience, saying, "He taught me that everyone deserves a fair shot and that we shouldn't leave anyone behind. That's what you learn from a fighter who has been underestimated his entire life,” as quoted in the report.
She went on to describe the president as a figure of "grace, strength and humility" and "one of the most consequential leaders ever in history."
Noting her father's constant concern for the American people, Ashley said, "About your dreams, about your dignity, about your opportunities, about your family." She also spoke about how he absorbed her and her brother Hunter's grief when their older brother Beau died in 2015.
Concluding her remarks, Ashley voiced her support for Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, saying, "In 2020, my dad selected Kamala Harris to beat Donald Trump, and he knows in 2024, she will beat Donald Trump again,” as quoted in the report.
As Ashley finished her speech, an emotional President Biden took the stage, wiping away tears with a tissue, before embracing his daughter.
