Vice President Joe Biden related to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting through his own losses of loved ones, he told Cox Media Group’s Washington Bureau.
In a sit-down interview, Biden recounted the trip he took to Orlando in the days after the shooting.
He laid 49 white roses down at a memorial in honor of the 49 victims of the shooting at Pulse Nightclub alongside President Obama.
“My heart was going out to the significant others, the families, the mothers, the fathers, the husbands, the wives. I’ve been there,” Biden said. “I’ve lost a wife, I’ve lost a daughter, I’ve lost a son and it’s a profoundly lonely feeling."
Biden said he met with the families of all of the victims and, “let them know that they can get through it though it’s hard as hell.”
Through the grief and pain, Biden said something else was happening in Orlando that was notably different from other attacks on the LGBT community.
“I watched the whole community embrace the gay community in a way that I don’t recall ever seeing,” Biden said.
The shooter in Orlando may have targeted the LGBT community, but Biden found hope in Orlando that progress has been made.
“There is real progress, there is real cultural change,” Biden said.
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