Politicians and celebrities lined up to endorse Joe Biden in a series of speeches during the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, but a 13-year-old boy with a stutter may have upstaged them all.
Brayden Harrington, a self-described “regular kid” with a stutter, thanked Joe Biden for helping him fight through that challenge, in an emotional speech delivered from the boy’s home to millions of people Thursday night. The boy’s moving two-minute address has since exploded on the internet, where people have applauded him for his bravery on such a massive stage.
“Without Joe Biden, I wouldn’t be talking to you today,” Harrington said at the beginning of his speech.
He spoke about how he met Biden, who is a fellow stutterer, at a rally in February, and about how the former vice president coached him with his own speaking impediment.
“He told me that we were members of the same club: We ss … ss … stutter,” the boy said, pressing through the verbal speed bump with confidence. Harrington said it meant a lot to know that Biden had become vice president despite his stutter.
“He told me about a book of poems by (W.B.) Yeats he’d read out loud to practise,” Harrington said. “He showed me how he marks his address to make them easier to say out loud, so I did the same thing today.”
Harrington paused his speech to show off the paper on which it was written. The typed-out speech featured plenty of space between lines, lots of colour-coding and several boldfaced words.
The boy went on to describe how many of the “normal” things in his life, such as going to the movies, have been put on hold until “the world feels better,” in a nod to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We need the world to feel better,” he said. “I’m just a regular kid, and in a short amount of time, Joe Biden made me feel confident about something that’s bothered me my whole life. Joe Biden cared. Imagine what he could do for all of us.”
Harrington wrapped up the speech by urging adults to elect Biden on Nov. 3. “Kids like me are counting on you to elect someone who we can all look up to, someone who cares, someone who will make our country and the world feel better.”
His brief address — briefly interrupted now and then by a stutter — has already racked up more than 4.6 million views on Twitter. More people tuned in to watch Harrington than they did to hear The Chicks sing the Star-Spangled Banner, or to hear John Legend and Common pay tribute to the late John Lewis.
“You are NOT a regular kid, Brayden,” tweeted Michael McFaul, the United States’ former ambassador to Russia. “Awesome speech tonight.”
Singer Cyndi Lauper described the boy as an “inspiration,” while Brooklyn Nine-Nine actress Melissa Fumero tweeted: “BRAVO, BRAYDEN!”
“Speaking is hard for me too, Brayden,” wrote former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, who had to re-learn how to speak after she was shot in the head in 2011. “But as you know, practice and purpose help. Thank you for your courage and for the great speech!”
Many contrasted the Biden story with Trump, who infamously mocked a reporter with a disability on the campaign trail in 2015. Trump mimicked the reporter’s hand posture, shook around and affected a shaky tone while pretending to quote him.
“It really comes down to that vs. this,” screenwriter Randi Mayem Singer wrote, in a tweet that was liked by more than 42,000 people.
Biden has spoken about his stutter many times over his political career. He told CNN in February that it still breaks through now and then, especially when he’s tired.
“It has nothing to do with your intelligence quotient. It has nothing to do with your intellectual makeup,” Biden said at the time. He added that he tries to slow down and be confident when it becomes a challenge.
“You have to break it up, because you get so nervous.”
He also cited The King’s Speech, the Oscar-winning film based on King George VI’s struggle with a stutter, as a good example of working through the impediment.
Brayden’s dad Owen, who spoke to CNN on the same day, said he brought the boy to see Biden speak in Concord, N.H., because of the politician’s stutter.
“My wife and I have always tried to find various people my son can relate to that stutter, and I’d read that Joe Biden stuttered and he was really respectful and kind to others in the same situation, such as children,” Owen Harrington told CNN.
He added that Biden really made time for the boy, and even shared a copy of the speech he had just delivered. He also asked for Brayden’s number so he could check up on his progress.
“He was basically showing him a strategy,” Owen Harrington said. “He normalized it.”
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