Biden Opens Up on Struggling with Stuttering
BALDWIN: This is quite a moment. Former Vice President Joe Biden really opened up last night during our CNN town hall about a lifelong struggle with a stutter. It's a very personal and very emotional moment. And Biden not only offered insight into his own story, he expressed encouragement to others who struggle with the same condition.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What advice would you give a college student who had struggled with stuttering since he was a young child?</s>JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, stuttering you think about it is the only handicap that people still laugh about, that still humiliate people about, and they don't even mean to. When I was a kid I talked -- talked- talked -- talked -- talked like that. And some of you smile. If I said to you, when I was a kid, I had a cleft palate and people made fun of me, no one would smile. So what I'd say to anybody out there and any of the people you work with, young people who stutter, I'll give you my phone number, not a joke, and they can call me. I'll give you a private number. Because it's really important they know, they know. They want to say, "You really did stutter?" And I still occasionally. When I find myself really tired, catch - catch myself saying something like that. It has nothing to do with your intelligence quotient. It has nothing to do with your intellectual makeup. It has something to do with, going back a long time, relating to, I think, part of it is confidence and how you were -- what circumstance you faced. I know I'm talking too long about this, but I feel desperately -- I feel strongly about this. What I did was I didn't have professional help. But I had three things going for me. I had a mother who had a backbone like a ramrod. And she'd, look, she'd go, Joey, look at me. Look at me, Joey. You're handsome, you're smart, you're a good athlete, Joey. Don't let this define you, Joey. Remember who you are, Joey. You can do it. Every time I'd walk out, she'd reinforce me. I know that sounds silly. It really matters. It really is about reaching out. And I -- I -- I -- don't want to -- I'm not making this political, but that's what I find so reprehensible about what's going on now. Making -- in my household and with my children as well, no one -- no matter how bitter the fight is with a friend or anyone else, you could never say something about them that was true. I mean, you can never say something -- if they were ugly, you couldn't say you ugly so and so. You could say you're a jerk. No, I really mean it, because things that people cannot control, it's not their fault. No one has the right -- no one has the right to mock it and make fun of it, no matter who they are. I probably got in trouble for saying I empathize with Rush Limbaugh dying of cancer. I don't like him at all. But he's going through hell right now. He's a human being. You just have to -- you just have to reach out a little more for people, man. We don't do it enough. We've got to heal this country.</s>BALDWIN: Former Vice President Joe Biden. We have more on our breaking news. The president going off on his perceived rivals in this surreal 62-minute ceremony celebrating his acquittal. See what happened. Also ahead, a community meeting on racism descends into racism. We'll talk too this immigrant father of three who faced racist abuse from another dad in this wild video.