NEW ORLEANS — President Joe Biden told mourners in New Orleans on Monday that they are not alone as he paid tribute to victims of the deadly New Year’s attack and channeled the pain felt by their loved ones.
Biden made the remarks at St. Louis Cathedral in the city’s historic French Quarter. not far from the area where an Army veteran drove a truck into revelers last week, killing 14 and injuring 30 more.
Biden praised “so many that ran toward the chaos, trying to help save others,” including first responders. He noted the city’s enduring strength and resilience amid tragedy, invoking past devastation like Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“The city’s people get back up,” Biden said. “That’s the spirit of America as well.”
Biden met privately with grieving families, survivors and first responders before the prayer service. He also stopped at a makeshift memorial where the attack had begun to unfold. It is being investigated as an act of terrorism inspired by the Islamic State group.
Biden has made dozens of visits to sites of violence, natural disaster and other calamities during his four years in office. With two weeks left, Monday’s visit to New Orleans could be his last such trip.
In his remarks Monday, Biden alluded to the personal loss in his own life and recounted words of collective grief he’s delivered time and again as president. He acknowledged the searing loss the grieving families will feel at holidays and birthdays to come, along with the small details they will miss about their loved ones.
“We know what it’s like to lose a piece of our soul. The anger. The emptiness,” he said.
He told the grieving families that they will eventually reach a day when the memory of their loved ones will make them smile before it makes them cry.
“It will take time, but I promise you, it will come. I promise you,” he said.
Before he met privately with the victims’ families, Biden and first lady Jill Biden made their first stop in the city at a memorial that sprung up on Bourbon Street at the spot where the attack started.
Flowers and messages were left at the bases of the crosses erected on the sidewalk. After Jill Biden placed white flowers at the memorial, she and the president stood in silence and bowed their heads.
At the public prayer service at the cathedral, a rendition of “Amazing Grace” was performed with a New Orleans jazz spin. The Bidens placed a candle at the altar. The president then returned to his seat in front pew, shutting his eyes tight in prayer.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Louisiana that Biden “believes this is also an important part of the job that he believes he needs to do as president.”
It’s a grim task that presidents perform, though not every leader has embraced the role with such intimacy as the 82-year-old Biden, who has experienced a lot of personal tragedy in his own life. His first wife and baby daughter died in a car accident in the early 1970s, and his elder son, Beau, died of cancer in 2015.
