WATCH: Biden Talks About Getting Along with Segregationists in Ode to Civility at National Prayer Breakfast

President Joe Biden spoke about getting along with segregationists back in the day, in an ode to civility at this year’s National Prayer Breakfast.

The president delivered a lengthy address at the annual breakfast that alternated between somber reflection, inspiration, and signature Biden anecdotes and jokes.

The speech also featured another regular Biden motif — using his comity with segregationists as an example of a bygone era of civility, even with vehement opponents.

Biden first spoke about colleagues who passed away this year, and joked “I learned a long time ago. Never make one good eulogy, because if you make one good eulogy, you got to do a lot of eulogies.”

He described having “good friends, both sides of the aisle who disagreed on many, many things, who still talk to and listen to one another.”

He then told a story about a lunch he had shortly after his wife and baby daughter were killed in an auto accident:

One of the things, I don’t know for sure, but I think is missing in the Congress. We don’t spend as much time with one another as we used to. We used to eat lunch together. I mean, literally sit down, not in the Senate dining room in the Senate with that small dining room off to the right across the hall, from the visitors dining room. There were two big round tables, big big dining room tables and a buffet.

And I remember when I first got here after my wife and daughter were killed in an accident, my boys were still in hospital. And I remember Teddy [Kennedy] would always come and say, “Come to lunch.”

I didn’t want any part of going to lunch, one day he just dragged me over to lunch, he said. “You’ll learn more there than anyplace else.”

And I would go to lunch there literally every day and listen to the senior members. And you learn about their losses, their happiness. You learn about them, you learn about their, you know. I remember one day I walked in and there were there was a little corner of a table on a corner table when the big table was filled, and I sat and Jim Eastland said, “Come over here, Joe, sit down here.”

And I wasn’t about to sit in John Stennis’s seat. And of course, he said, “Head of the table.” And he said, “Now, come on, go on.”

So I ordered my hamburger, took a couple of bites and in walks John Stennis and I immediately put a napkin on all my stuff and I said, “I’m finished, Mr. Chairman. Come on right here.”

I later got a handwritten letter from about three o’clock this afternoon: [in Southern drawl] “I appreciate the honor of you recognizing my seat, but you didn’t finish your meal, I promise this favor will be returned.”

He actually endorsed me when I ran for president, from Mississippi, I think that was an expensive hamburger for him. (laughter)

But I guess I’m trying to say is, you know, when you know one another, when you know, and no matter how badly you disagree, and people think that in the days it’s divided here, we had a lot of flat out segregationists still in our caucus.

But Teddy Kennedy would argue like hell with Jim Eastland, go down over lunch, didn’t agree with one another, but they treated each other with respect even in that day.

And I just think that when you learn that another man or woman, you’re flying on CoDel (Congressional delegation) and someone has their husband or wife with them and you learn that they have a kid with a problem, alcoholism, you learn that they have a daughter who has breast cancer.

It’s hard to dislike the person. And so one of the things I pray for, and I mean it is, we sort of get back to the place, it’s so busy, I think things have changed so much, but we get to really know each other. It’s hard to really dislike someone when you know what they’re going through, the same thing you’re going through.

Biden, who will likely become the first president to successfully appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court, tangled with current Vice President Kamala Harris over some of his past remarks about segregation during the Democratic primary campaign. But obviously, they reconciled and now lead the country together.

Watch above via C-Span.