Joe Biden Makes His First Public Appearance In More Than 2 Months

Former Vice President Joe Biden made his first public appearance in more than two months on Monday, breaking from his online-only campaign as social distancing measures begin to ease.

Sporting a protective face mask with his wife, Jill Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee commemorated Memorial Day by visiting Delaware Memorial Bridge Veterans Memorial Park.

“Never forget the sacrifices that these men and women made,” he told reporters after laying down a wreath. “Never, ever forget.”

His late son, Beau Biden, was an army veteran who served in the Iraq War before dying of brain cancer in 2015.

The former vice president has been campaigning exclusively from his Delaware home for the last two months after the coronavirus outbreak forced rallies and other 2020 campaign functions to come to a screeching halt. The circumstances have sowed some anxiety among his supporters, who worry that Biden’s at a disadvantage while President Donald Trump continues to hold press conferences. 

The Biden campaign did not say whether Monday’s appearance means he will begin to appear in public again.

“Vice President Biden and Dr. Biden believe that as the American people support each other and persevere together to overcome this crisis, it’s more imperative than ever that we honor and remember the veterans, and their families, who sacrificed everything for this nation, and who always represent the very best in us as Americans,” a campaign official told HuffPost. “It’s that spirit that will get us through this challenge and enable us to come back stronger than before.”

While Biden wore a mask Monday, complying with advice from public health officials, Trump has refused to wear one. During a tour at a Ford Motor Co. plant last Thursday, the president told reporters he had a mask on at one point but took it off to spite them . 

“I didn’t want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it,” Trump said.