President-Elect Joe Biden Comes Home to PA to Honor Veterans

Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, stopped at the Korean War Memorial in Philadelphia for about 15 minutes on Wednesday afternoon.

President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, marked Veterans Day with a visit to the Korean War Memorial in Philadelphia.

They briefly participated in a ceremony at the memorial in Penn’s Landing, and laid a red, white, and blue floral wreath near the memorial’s black marble columns.

“It means the world,” Patrick Dugan, an Army veteran and board member of the Friends of the Korean War Memorial, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “It means a lot, to have the President-elect come here to Philadelphia, to this memorial.”

Dugan, the chief judge of the Philadelphia Veterans Court, was one of only a few people who knew in advance that the Bidens would visit Philadelphia. He said he had been “sworn to secrecy” and “barely told (his) wife.”

Dugan told CBS3 felt the Biden family’s tradition of military service, through Joe Biden’s son, Beau, who was a long-time member of the Army National Guard, has helped the Bidens understand what veterans go through.

Joe Biden didn’t make any public remarks during the ceremony, but he was seen returning the salutes of military personnel, and placing his hand over his heart.

Before he left, the president-elect spoke privately with a few attendees and Mayor Jim Kenney.

Kenney later said on Facebook that he was “honored that President-elect Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden chose to join us in Philadelphia on this important day of remembrance.”

Kenney, who last week called on President Donald Trump to “put on his big boy pants” and concede, told Biden that city officials will stand by his administration.