Joe Biden Eulogy Transcript at George Floyd’s Funeral

Joe Biden: (00:00)
Hello everyone on this day of prayer, where we try to understand God’s plan in our pain. To George’s family and friends, Jill and I know that deep hole in your hearts when you bury a piece of your soul deep in this earth. As I said to you privately, we know. We know you will never feel the same again. For most people, the numbness you feel now will slowly turn day after day, season after season into purpose through the memory of the one they lost. But for you that day has come before you can fully grieve. And unlike most, you must grieve in public. It is a burden. A burden that is now your purpose to change the world for the better in the name of George Floyd.

Joe Biden: (00:55)
Like so many others, I’ve watched with awe as you summon the absolute courage to channel God’s grace and show the good man George was. To stir justice too long dormant, to move millions to act peacefully and purposely, but among all the people around the world who feel connected to this tragedy are the ones who lost something that can never, ever be replaced. To George’s children and grandchild, I know you miss your dad and your granddad.

Joe Biden: (01:26)
Little Gianna, as I said to you when I saw you yesterday, you’re so brave. Daddy’s looking down. He’s so proud of you. I know you miss that bear hug that only he could give, the pure joy riding on his shoulders so you could touch the sky, the countless hours he spent playing any game you wanted because your smile, your laugh, your love is the only thing that mattered at the moment. I know you have a lot of questions, honey, no child should have to ask questions that too many black children have had to ask for generations. Why?

Joe Biden: (02:05)
Why is daddy gone? Looking through your eyes we should also be asking ourselves why the answer is so often too cruel and painful? Why in this nation do too many black Americans wake up knowing that they can lose their life? And of course, they’re just living their life. Why does justice not roll like a river or righteousness like a mighty stream? Why? Well ladies and gentlemen, you can’t turn away. We must not turn away. We cannot leave this moment thinking we can once again turn away from racism that stings at our very soul.

Joe Biden: (02:47)
From systemic abuse that still plagues american life. As Thurgood Marshall once implored, “America must dissent from indifference. It must dissent from fear, the hatred and the mistrust. We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.” I grew up with Catholic social doctrine, which taught me that faith without works is dead, and you will know us by what we do. Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve got to deal with the denial, the promise of this nation to so many people for so long. It’s about who we are, what we believe, and maybe most importantly, who we want to be to ensure that all men and women are not only created equal, but are treated equally.

Joe Biden: (03:43)
We can heal this nation’s wounds and remember its pain, not callous the heart and forget. I know Reverend Sharpton is there in Houston with you today. Rev, I watched you speak from Ecclesiastic last week and Minnesota chapter three, verse one, everything there is a time and a purpose and a season under the heavens, but today, now is the time, the purpose, the season to listen and heal. Now is the time for racial justice. That’s the answer we must give to our children when they ask why. Because when there is justice for George Floyd, we will truly be on our way to racial justice in America. And then as you said Gianna, your daddy will have changed the world.

Joe Biden: (04:32)
May God be with you, George Floyd and your family. And the words of a hymn from my church based on the 91st Psalm, may he raise you up on eagle’s wings, bear you on the breadth of dawn and make you to shine like the sun and hold you in the palm of his hand. God bless you all. God bless you all.