US President Joe Biden opened up about the dark times he endured after his first wife and daughter died in a car crash, describing to radio host Howard Stern on Friday how he contemplated suicide.
Biden sat for a surprise interview during a visit to New York.
In one of the most revealing passages he talked of his despair at the death of Neilia and their 13-month-old daughter Naomi in December 1972.
“I don’t drink. That’s not a virtue. I just never drank,” he said.
“And I used to sit there and think to myself, I think I’ll take out a bottle of Scotch. We always had liquor in the house … and I was going to just drink and get drunk and I could never bring myself to do it.
“And I actually thought about you know, you don’t have to be crazy to commit suicide. If you’ve been at the top of a mountain you think it’s never going to be there again.
“And just a brief moment, I thought maybe I just go to the Delaware Memorial Bridge and jump. but I had two kids.”
The live radio interview took listeners by surprise. Biden has sat for few interviews since taking office and the appearance was not listed on his public schedule.
He spent Thursday night in New York City after a fundraiser at the home of actor Michael Douglas in Westchester County.
The president spent Thursday night in New York City after attending a fundraiser hosted by actor Michael Douglas in Westchester County.
“I got put in that ten most eligible bachelors list,’ he told Stern, who observed he was a U.S. senator at the time.
“And a lot of lovely women, but women, would send very salacious pictures and I just give them to the Secret Service. And I thought somebody would think I was …” he said, without clarifying why the agency who handles presidential security would be involved.
He decided to tap the brakes on his romantic pursuits.
“And I just gave up,” Biden said. Then, “I got a call from my brother. So I have a girl here at Delaware – Jill is nine years younger than I am. He said you’ll love her. She doesn’t like politics,” he continued, describing events that set up his second marriage.
Stern asked a series of softball biographical questions in an interview that culminated with the host sharing his own exasperation about how people could vote for someone who told a Georgia election official to ‘find 11,780’ votes.
Biden recounted his time working as a lifeguard in a predominantly black neighborhood in Delaware.
Biden recounted pulling six people from distress, without bragging about the endeavor.
“You ever save anyone’s life when you were a lifeguard?” he asked.
