Amid a crowd of hundreds watching President Joe Biden speak at a North County campaign event for Rep. Mike Levin on Thursday, Jared Smith and his handwritten sign stood out. It read: “Thank you for having a stutter.”
About 20 minutes into the speech, President Biden noticed it, but couldn’t read it.
"I’ll catch you later, OK?” Biden told Smith. “I have no idea what it says. It has a small print on it.”
San Diego Stories
Get San Diego local news, weather forecasts, sports and lifestyle stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC San Diego newsletters.
A woman nearby then jumped in and read it out loud.
“Oh god [I] love you,” said President Biden.
“I really wanted to thank him for working a thankless job and being an example of someone with a stutter or speech disability,” Smith told NBC 7 Friday.
Smith has a speech impediment.
“It's a thankless task being a person with a nonvisual disability and oftentimes you’re expected to fit into society rather than having society be understanding of you,” he said.
Throughout the years, Biden has spoken openly about his struggles with stuttering, and after seeing Jared’s sign, he didn’t hold back.
“I used to ta-ta-ta-talk like that whe-whe-whe-when I was a kid,” Biden said from the stage. “It’s awfully hard to ask the girl, ‘Will you go to the prom with me?’ It sounds funny but it makes you feel like an idiot.”
“I started crying tears of joy as well as I was really focused on listening to what he was saying,” Smith said. “During it, I felt joy but I thought about every person with a speech impediment in my life and their lives and their stories.”
President Biden then spoke directly to Smith.
“I say to any stutter; it will not define you,” said Biden. “It cannot define you, period.”
And the audience cheered.
“I didn't really think about getting a response from him but his response was just so beautiful and moving,” Smith said.
Now he hopes his experience promotes empathy and understanding for those who live with a disability, especially those with a non-visual one.
Smith is a senior at Sage Creek High School in Carlsbad. He has plans to attend Palomar College next year and study either robotics or computer science.
