‘You Got Me Emotional’: Watch Biden Choke Up During Video Chat With Pandemic Health Care Workers

Sarah RumpfNov 18th, 2020, 5:04 pm
 

President-elect Joe Biden got emotional during a video conference with a group of health care workers treating Covid-19 patients, getting teary-eyed after hearing a heartbreaking story from an ICU nurse.

CNN’s Brooke Baldwin played a clip of the discussion Wednesday, introducing the video as part of a segment with reporter Arlette Saenz about the challenges the Biden transition team is facing getting the Trump administration to cooperate with them.

“So Biden really, for the fourth day in a row, he and his team are again pressing the case and trying to keep the pressure on the Trump administration to begin coordinating with them when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic,” said Saenz, and as part of his effort to “trying to put a personal face to this pandemic,” Biden held a video conference with “the front line health care workers who are battling this virus day in and day out.”

“He promised them that he would work for them, that he would work to protect them and to pay them,” she continued. “There was also quite an emotional moment when he heard from an ICU nurse who talked about her own experience.”

“The physical impacts of this virus have been devastating,” said Mary Turner with the Minnesota Nurses Association, telling Biden about her experiences as she fought back tears. “I myself have held the hand of dying patients or cried over their family that they can’t see. I’ve taken care of coworkers as they fight for their lives on a ventilator, and knowing that they got sick because of the hospital or their government hasn’t protected them. I’m sorry I’m so emotional.”

“No,” replied Biden. “You got me emotional.”

After the video, Baldwin recalled her conversation the day before with a nurse from Iowa. “She said ‘I can’t unsee what I have seen. Please help us, protect us,’ pleading with people to wear masks.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law & Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on the BBC, MSNBC, NewsNation, Fox 35 Orlando, Fox 7 Austin, The Young Turks, The Dean Obeidallah Show, and other television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe.