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Bigger than yourself. john's story is the american story. that's not hyperbole. the american story. grounded in respect and decency, basic fairness. the intolerance for the abuse of power. many of you have traveled the world, lack how the rest of the world, how they look at us. they look at us a little naive, we're fair, decent. naive americans. but that's who we are, that's who john was. and he could not stand the abuse of power wherever he saw it. in whatever form, whatever country.

[laughing] one of john's major campaign people is now with the senate, with the governor of ohio, was on this morning, i happened to watch it. he said that biden and mccain had a strange relationship, always seemed to have each other's back. whenever i was in trouble john was the first guy there. and i hope i was there for him. and we never hesitate to give each other advice. he'd call me, what the hell did you say that for in the middle of the campaign? not an issue, you just screwed up, joe. i'd occasionally call him. look, i've been thinking this week about why john's death has hit the coun...

And i can remember the day when i came out to see john, we reminisced about it, it was in '96 and we were about to adjourn for what we called the caucuses, a lunch on that we had lunch together, democratic and republican senators once a week. we went into the caucus. we were approached by our caucus leaders with the same thing, raised as discussion, joe, it doesn't look good you sitting next to john. swear to god. same thing was said to john in your caucus. that's when things began to change for the worse in america, in the senate. that's when it changed. what happened was, at those times, it ...

We received an award for civility in public life. it was the college of allegheny college, puts out this prestigious award for bipartisanship. john and i looked at each other, and said what the hell is going here. not a joke. i said to senator flake, that's how it is always supposed to be. you're getting an award? i'm serious, think about this, getting an award for your civility. getting an award for bipartisanship. and classic john, at allegheny college, hundreds of people there. john, the senate was in session, he spoke first. and as he walked off the stage and i walked on, he looked at me, ...

We hold these truths self-evident, all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. to john those words had meaning as they have for every great patriot that has served this country. we both loved the senate, proudest years of my life were being a united states senator. i was honored to be vice president. but being a united states senator, and we both lamented watching it change. during long debates in the '80s and '90s, as some of the colleagues who were around then, i'd sit next to john, next to his seat. he'd come over on the democratic side and sit next ...