Thread by @ChrisMurphyCT

I want to tell you a story - one I don’t think I’ve ever told publicly before - about the man we have a chance to elect President of the United States today.

1/ A story about the day Joe Biden came to Connecticut - 2 months after Sandy Hook.

I hope you’ll read this.

2/ Biden came to give a speech at a forum on gun violence that we had organized at a state college just outside Newtown.

It was just 60 days after the shooting and the event was intended to help us push for the changes in gun laws we wanted at the federal and state levels.

3/ He stayed after his speech to meet with the Sandy Hook parents. In a somber room off the main hall, he spent about 2 hours with about 10 families. He told stories of his own loss, he explained how he rebuilt his life, he gave a lot hugs.

Then he did something else.

4/ A group of parents of gun violence victims in Hartford/Bridgeport were at the conference too. They wanted to meet Biden. They were understandably furious that America hadn’t cared when Black kids were getting murdered, but now had suddenly awoken to the gun violence crisis.

5/ Biden had promised to say hello, so they had stuck around. But by the time he got to them, he had already been in CT for 5 hours or so & he still had to fly back to DC. The cameras and press and all the other attendees were long gone. It was now just him and these families.

6/ I expected him to say hello and then head out. But that’s not what happened. He sat in that room, talking with those parents - FOR HOURS. Listening intently to each of their stories. Asking questions about their fallen sons. Learning about their pain.

7/ No one saw it. No press reported on it. But here was the Vice President of the United States sitting for hours with parents of urban gun crime, telling them their kids’ lives mattered. To him.

He didn’t need to do it, but he did - because that’s who Joe Biden is.