The Conversation (0)
Tobi Akingbade
Aug 21, 2020
The final night of the Democratic National Convention became an emotional one after a 13-year-old spoke about how the party's presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has made him feel more confident about his stutter.
In a video that has now gone viral, Brayden Harrington spoke about how he met the politician in February at a campaign event in New Hampshire.
The young boy said the former vice president invited Harrington backstage to continue their conversation about stuttering and told him about how he has worked to overcome his own stutter and it will leave you in your feelings.
Harrington said:
He told me that we were members of the same club: We stutter. It was really amazing to hear that someone like me became vice president
Biden showed Harrington a copy of the campaign speech he had just delivered in New Hampshire with markings showing where he could take breaks between words.
Harrington added:
He showed me how he marks his addresses to make them easier to say out loud. So I did the same thing today.
During the video, Harrington flipped around the piece of paper he was reading to show the markings on his speech.
He continued:
I'm just a regular kid, and in a short amount of time, Joe Biden made me feel more confident about something that's bothered me my whole life. Joe Biden cared. Imagine what he could do for all of us. Kids like me are counting on you to elect someone we can all look up to. Someone who cares. Someone who will make our country and the world feel better. We're counting on you to elect Joe Biden.
Biden, who said he still occasionally stutters, said he didn't receive professional help for his stutter but practiced in the mirror for hours on end reciting poetry written by Irish poets like William Butler Yeats. He also credited his mother when it came to not letting his stutter define him.
Harrington's video has left some people online in tears with many praising him for his “strength” and ‘courage”.
I hope everybody recognizes the guts it took for Brayden Harrington to get up there tonight. Astounding.— Charles P. Pierce (@Charles P. Pierce) 1597978595
Brayden Harrington, boy who has a stutter, speaks courageously at DNC about his interaction with Biden: “Joe Biden cared.”— Jim Acosta (@Jim Acosta) 1597976991
Brayden Harrington, the 13-year-old New Hampshire boy with a stutter, is just remarkable. What courage and guts it… https://t.co/ytXgRjadtr— Jeff Zeleny (@Jeff Zeleny) 1597976951
Brayden Harrington, the 13-year-old boy with a stutter. Pure, unvarnished, courage.— Dan Rather (@Dan Rather) 1597977252
No, *you're* crying.
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