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Mika Brzezinski and Joe Biden reflect on grief, losing loved ones to cancer

Joe Biden and Mika Brzezinski discuss how cancer has impacted their lives and how Biden is coping with the loss of his son Beau.
Mika Brzezinski talks to former Vice President Joe Biden in an interview that ran on "Morning Joe" on Tuesday.
Mika Brzezinski talks to former Vice President Joe Biden in an interview that ran on "Morning Joe" on Tuesday.Jeff Kepnes

In 2012, then-Vice President Joe Biden gave a heartfelt speech about grief. While the feeling never completely goes away, Biden – who lost his first wife and daughter in a car accident – promised it eventually makes room for other things too.

That speech resonated with many Americans, including Know Your Value founder Mika Brzezinski, who lost her best friend, Tia Garner, to pancreatic cancer in 2017.

"There will come a day – I promise you, and your parents as well – when the thought of your son or daughter, or your husband or wife, brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye," said Biden, in his 2012 speech. "It will happen."

Brzezinski asked Biden, who lost son Beau Biden to brain cancer two years ago, to reflect on how he’s feeling today – and if the day where he smiles before he cries first has come.

“It has,” said the 2020 presidential candidate, noting there are still difficult days. “I get up every morning [wife] Jill and I, no joke, I ask myself, “Is he proud of me? He was my heart.”

Watch the entire “Morning Joe” segment above.

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