WASHINGTON — President Biden has given what appears to be his first on-record interview to a newspaper reporter since taking office — focusing prominently on his late son Beau’s links to a transgender congressional candidate.
Biden, 81, spoke Thursday to reporter Chris Kane of the Washington Blade, a DC-based LGBTQ-focused newspaper, which published a preview of Biden’s remarks Friday pertaining to Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride, who won the Tuesday Democratic primary for an open House seat.
McBride, 34, would be the nation’s first openly transgender member of Congress and worked on Beau Biden’s re-election campaign for state attorney general in 2010 while a student at American University.
“I called her and I said, ‘Sarah,’ I said, ‘Beau’s looking down from heaven, congratulating you,’” the retiring president said.
PREVIEW: Biden grants exclusive interview to the Blade, congratulates @SarahEMcBride https://t.co/hsNos7FWqW
— Washington Blade (@WashBlade) September 13, 2024
“[Beau] was getting the hell kicked out” of him because “he hired her,” Biden told the outlet of McBride, who came out as transgender in 2012, two years after her employment on his campaign.
When McBride announced she was transgender, Biden said, his son called her to say “I’m so proud of you. I love you, and you’re still a part of the Biden family.”
“Now she’s going to be the next congresswoman, the next congresswoman from Delaware,” the president told the Blade, whose print edition is available for free at corner stores and bars around Washington.
Biden told the paper McBride “started to fill up” with emotion during their call this week and replied to him that the “‘only reason I’m here is because of Beau. He had confidence in me.”
The president has not given known on-record interviews to reporters from any other newspaper since taking office in January 2021 — though he has done a smattering of magazine interviews and spoke in 2022 to a journalist from the Associated Press wire service.
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