Woman Asks Joe Biden ‘What is Your Fire’ Like Bernie and Warren, Biden’s Answer Gets Ovation From SC Crowd

Former Vice President and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden got huge applause with an answer to the question “Where’s your fire” as compared to Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Vice President Biden took questions at a campaign event in Sumter, South Carolina on Friday, and one moment stood out for its quintessential Biden-ness.

In the part of the exchange that went viral, a woman who introduced herself as Mary Beth Barry said to Biden “For me, what I’m wondering is what drives you,” and added “I know you talk about what you and Obama did, but what is your fire?”

“Cuz you see Bernie, you see Elizabeth Warren, you see that fire. That’s what I’m looking for,” Barry continued, and asked, emotively, “What is your fire?”

“Decency and honor and restoring this country’s,” Biden said, as the audience leapt to its feet and applauded.

“No let me, what got me, no it’s an important question,” Biden continued through the applause, and said “The fact that I’m not screaming like Bernie and waving my arms, or, like Elizabeth, is not lack of fire.”

“The fire that has always ignited my interest in every issue I care about is everyone is entitled to be treated with decency,” he went on to add.

But the full ten-minute exchange is shot through with traits that observers of the former VP will know well.

He began the interaction with an impolitic joke as Barry was preparing to answer, saying She’s looking at me like my wife looks at me sometimes.”

Then, noting the shirt Barry was wearing, he added “And by the way she does a lot of Peloton too, anyway.”

Ms. Barry introduced herself by telling Biden “I am an associate professor of theater and speech at University of South Carolina,” and that “My husband Chris is a veteran he actually briefed you in July 2009 in Iraq.”

She told Biden that he’d already earned her husband’s support, and that her 12 year-old son is on board as well because of Biden’s commitment to curing cancer.

What followed their viral exchange was another nine minutes during which Biden expounded on his answer, then went off on a personalized tangent about working with Barry’s husband in Iraq that culminated in the swearing-in of several hundred troops as U.S. citizens, and concluded with a vivid anecdote about his father quitting a good job because the boss humiliated people at a Christmas party.

Biden apologized for giving too much answer, but the exchange illustrated the essence of The Biden Show: freewheeling, personal, and overflowing with authenticity.

Watch Biden’s full answer above via Fox News.