President Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris on Monday, they made their first joint appearance since his electoral defeat when they celebrated Veterans Day together by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The two then traveled to the ceremonial amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, where Biden honored the service and sacrifice of America’s veterans – including those who paid the ultimate price and their families – during which was his last time as Commander-in-Chief. of the American army.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to lead you, to serve you, to care for you, to defend you, just as you have defended us, generation after generation after generation,” Biden said. “You are the greatest fighting force, and this is not hyperbole, the greatest fighting force in the history of the world.”

He discussed his travels to U.S. military installations around the world and historic military sites such as Valley Forge And Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.

Biden also announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding the types of cancers covered by the PACTE law, a law he signed to expand health care services to veterans who served on military bases where toxic smoke billowed from “burn pits.”

More than a million veterans and families have been helped through the law, he said.

The president opened his brief speech by declaring that America’s “truly sacred obligation” is to prepare those it sends into danger and to care for them when they return home or not.

The President’s son, Beautifulwho First Lady Jill Biden helped to raise, served in the Delaware Army National Guard and deployed to Iraq in 2008 for about a year. He died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46.

Earlier, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Biden and Harris, accompanied by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonoughwore solemn expressions on their faces. They placed their hands over their hearts as the national anthem played before the wreath-laying, and again afterward to the sound of “Taps.”

The president and first lady had welcomed veterans and members of the military community to the White House before them and Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoffleft Washington for the sacred cemetery across the Potomac River.

It was the first time Biden and Harris were seen together in public since the vice president lost last week’s election to the former president. Donald Trumpalthough Biden spoke to Trump and Harris by phone. The president plans to host the president-elect at the White House on Wednesday.

Before leaving the cemetery, Harris and Emhoff visited a grave. The White House did not say who was buried there.

After the celebration, Biden flew to his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, but planned to return to Washington later Monday.

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Republished with permission from The Associated Press.

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