Meeting Joe Biden

by Eve Zhurbinskiy (New Jersey)

For quite a while now, I’ve wanted to pursue a career in public service. There were two major factors that led me to want to do this. The first is seeing that the civil rights of Americans aren’t guaranteed in many cases. The second is Vice President Joe Biden. So when I unexpectedly got the chance to see President Obama and Vice President Biden speak at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Friday, August 23rd, I jumped at the chance and gladly traveled the few hours from my small town in New Jersey.

I met one of my closest friends, Lauren Waksman, through talking about how much we love Joe Biden on twitter last year. Lauren had told me about the event in Scranton the week before, but I didn’t think I’d be able to make it. On Wednesday, Lauren found out that tickets were only available at the door on Thursday, and since she lives two hours away from Scranton, she wouldn’t be able to get them. On Thursday morning, she jokingly sent out this tweet: “Question for @VP (what else is new?) If you’ll be in Scranton on Friday, can you get me in? Tickets might be gone by the time I get there“

The idea that somehow Joe Biden would get her tickets to the event seemed absurd. But, two hours later, she got an email from Kendra Barkoff, the Vice President’s Press Secretary, offering her two tickets and VIP parking to the event. Lauren generously gave me her other ticket. We couldn’t believe what had happened.

We arrived in Scranton on Friday, got to the venue two and a half hours early, were seated in a section labeled “Reserved for Biden friends & family” and watched the vice president and president deliver a speech on an issue so important to our generation- how to make college affordable for every American, because the future of our country depends on our citizens having the necessary skills to keep moving America forward.

At the end of the speech, we jumped up, hoping to get closer to be able to shake President Obama’s hand. Instead, Liz Allen, Joe Biden’s Deputy Press Secretary, asked us if we were Lauren and Eve and ushered us into a basketball locker room with a couch and a table with refreshments, saying that we’d take a few pictures and talk about twitter soon.

Ten minutes later, followed by a number of staff, photographers, and Secret Service agents, Vice President Biden walked through the door, arms outstretched. Lauren and I were frozen on the couch for three seconds, unable to believe our eyes. He walked towards us, and asked, “which one of you is which?” I manage to say, “I’m Eve, nice to meet you Mr. Vice President” and stick out my hand for a handshake while getting off the couch. “Oh come on!” he said, pulls me off the couch, refuses my handshake, and hugs me. I was in complete shock from the fact that I was meeting my hero. After hugging and kissing Lauren on the cheek, he held our hands and said, “I heard you were big supporters of ours on twitter” and asked us where we’re from. When he realized that we lived a few hours away, he told us that we were so nice to come here, and that we were going to pose for pictures and go downstairs and meet the president.

After taking pictures with the vice president- everything is a blur of happiness and shock — we went downstairs and saw President Obama taking pictures with some people. We waited behind the curtain. I spent this time staring into Vice President Biden’s eyes, wanting to tell him how much he means to me but somehow unable to open my mouth to do so. President Obama walked over. Vice President Biden said, “These girls are big supporters of ours on twitter, they came here all the way from Bucks County and New Jersey, isn’t that nice?” President Obama shook our hands and asked us if we were still in school. Having an actual conversation with the president and vice president of the United States was so surreal, we could hardly believe it was real.

People often ask why Joe Biden is my biggest hero. There are a lot of reasons. Obviously, there are his tremendous political accomplishments. He wrote the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, which led to domestic violence rates plummeting by over 50%. He led the fight to block ultra-conservative Robert Bork from becoming a Supreme Court justice, when there was little precedent to do so. He negotiated the SALT II Treaty. He was instrumental in the passage of the Assault Weapon Ban and Brady Bill. As Vice President, he oversaw the Iraq War pullout, the implementation of the stimulus, negotiated three big budget deals to avoid potential economic disaster, and likely convinced President Obama to support marriage equality. The office of the vice presidency, once viewed as insignificant, has been completely redefined by Joe Biden. He has set the standard of an exemplary vice presidency.

Then there’s the fact that he did all of this while overcoming tremendous personal difficulties. He came from a working class family, and pulled himself up to be elected to the US Senate at age 29 against a popular long-time Republican incumbent, becoming one of the youngest senators ever. He stuttered as a kid, and spent hundreds of hours teaching himself to stop. Shortly after being elected to the Senate, his wife and daughter died in a car crash, and his sons were critically injured. He survived not one, but two brain aneurysms in 1988. Joe Biden is someone who could have easily given up, but every time he got knocked down, he got back up- and our nation is better because of it.

But perhaps most of all, Joe Biden is a really nice guy. He has many bipartisan friendships, a phenomenon that isn’t so common in Washington today. As Senator John McCain recently said, “there’s not a mean bone in Joe Biden’s body.” Vice President Biden is someone who truly sees the good in everyone, and who treats everyone, from foreign dignitaries to the janitor who set up the room, with the same respect. I saw this firsthand. He had had a tough week- spending it at a hospital in Houston, where his son Beau, the Attorney General of Delaware, had undergone cancer tests- but still took time out of his day to meet us, and genuinely seemed happy to do so. It was an experience that Lauren and I will never forget, and Joe Biden knew how much it would mean to us.

If there’s one thing that everyone ought to remember here though, it’s to never doubt the power of social media. If you had told me Thursday morning that I would meet the president and vice president of the United States because of a joke tweet that my friend sent, I would have told you that you’re insane. Somehow, this happened, and it was a dream come true. So, the next time you send a tweet to a politician remember: they hear you. And that tweet has the potential to go very far.

-Eve Zhurbinskiy is the chairwoman of the New Jersey High School Democrats. To get involved with NJHSD,

email ezhurbinskiy@hsdems.org. -