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While campaigning in Pennsylvania, cameras caught former Vice President Joe Biden promising a personal phone call to a supporter who is dying of cancer, and who had pre-written her obituary urging people to vote for Biden.
Biden was campaigning on Election Day when a man approached him and made the request. Axios correspondent Alexi McCammond captured the moment, and got some details from the man — whom she identified as Joe Gilbooley — immediately afterward.
“After Biden’s brief remarks a man approached him, but far enough away that I could only make out that he was talking to Biden about an ‘obituary’ and asking if he would make a phone call to someone. So I found him after to ask what that was about..” McCammond wrote.
“Joe Gilbooley, who lives in Scranton, relayed that a family friend who is dying of cancer is a big Biden fan. He shared with Biden that in anticipation of an untimely passing before E Day, she has already written her obituary and in it included a line imploring others
McCammond added “He asked Biden if he’d call her to offer words of wisdom, and later gave a staffer her contact info. ‘He’s going to call her,’ Gilbooley said of Biden.”
In the video, you can hear the man explaining his friend’s obituary to Biden, and Biden directing him to a staff member.
McCammond also filed a pool report describing the moment:
After Biden’s brief remarks a man approached him, but far enough away that pooler could only make out that he was talking to Biden about an “obituary” and asking if he would make a phone call to someone. Pooler saw the man extend his phone with a contact on the screen ready to be dialed. Biden redirected the man to his nearby staffer who appear to take down info to setup a call. Your pooler followed up with the man, Joe Gilbooley who lives in Scranton, after. He relayed that a Susan Corbett, a family friend who is dying of cancer, is a big Biden supporter. She comes from a big Irish Catholic family like Biden, Gilbooley said, and unfortunately he said she “probably has a couple weeks” left to live. In spite of that, he said she desperately wanted to make it through Election Day in the hopes of seeing Joe Biden elected as president. “He’s going to call her,” Gilbooley said. He shared with Biden that in anticipation of an
untimely passing before today, she has already written her obituary and in it included a line imploring others to vote for Biden.
Displays of empathy have been a regular feature of Biden’s time on the campaign trail, and figure heavily in his appeals to voters.