--- title: Read Transcript of President Obama Honoring Joe Biden description: President Barack Obama on Thursday bestowed Vice President Joe Biden with the nation’s highest civilian honor during a surprise ceremony. canonical: https://time.com/4633826/joe-biden-obama-presidential-medal-freedom/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-12T23:45:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:36:45.728Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Full Transcript of President Obama Honoring Joe Biden og:description: The surprise moment brought Vice President Joe Biden to tears og:url: https://time.com/4633826/joe-biden-obama-presidential-medal-freedom/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cd6dad524117dc5/6988b569e20a8771f9a93bd8/joe-biden-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Barack Obama Awards VP Joe Biden Presidential Medal Of Freedom og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Full Transcript of President Obama Honoring Joe Biden twitter:description: The surprise moment brought Vice President Joe Biden to tears twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cd6dad524117dc5/6988b569e20a8771f9a93bd8/joe-biden-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read the Full Transcript of President Obama Surprising Joe Biden With the Medal of Freedom > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=95defede-1408-4eb3-a334-77c4d0c10a04&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 12, 2017 11:45 PM UTC  President Barack Obama presents the Medal of Freedom to Vice President Joe Biden during an event at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 12, 2017. President Barack Obama presents the Medal of Freedom to Vice President Joe Biden during an event at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 12, 2017. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 12, 2017 11:45 PM UTC [President Barack Obama](http://time.com/4631086/president-obama-farewell-speech-joe-biden/?iid=sr-link2) on Thursday [bestowed Vice President Joe Biden](http://time.com/4633555/joe-bien-presidential-medal-freedom/) with the nation’s highest civilian honor during a surprise ceremony that [brought the president’s right-hand man to tears](http://time.com/4633604/joe-biden-obama-cries-medal/?xid=homepage). Obama awarded Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom after calling the vice president his “brother” and a “lion of American history.” An emotional Biden accepted the honor but said it was “well beyond” what he deserves. Below is a complete transcript of the event. --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4633826/joe-biden-obama-presidential-medal-freedom/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4633826/joe-biden-obama-presidential-medal-freedom/"},"headline":"Read the Full Transcript of President Obama Surprising Joe Biden With the Medal of Freedom","datePublished":"2017-01-12T23:45:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:36:45.728Z","description":"“I had no inkling,” Biden said after wiping away tears","url":"https://time.com/4633826/joe-biden-obama-presidential-medal-freedom/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cd6dad524117dc5/6988b569e20a8771f9a93bd8/joe-biden-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cd6dad524117dc5/6988b569e20a8771f9a93bd8/joe-biden-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Barack Obama Awards VP Joe Biden Presidential Medal Of Freedom","caption":"President Barack Obama Awards VP Joe Biden Presidential Medal Of Freedom","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4633826/joe-biden-obama-presidential-medal-freedom/","name":"Read the Full Transcript of President Obama Surprising Joe Biden With the Medal of Freedom"}}]}] ```