Powerful video of Biden comforting son of school shooting victim resurfaces: ‘It’s going to be okay’

Attack at high school in Florida in 2018 killed 17 people

A video of Joe Biden consoling the son of a sports coach killed in a Florida school shooting has resurfaced on Twitter, with viewers praising him for his compassion.

The footage from 2018 shows the Democratic presidential candidate at a memorial service in Parkland, Florida, just days after a high school shooting there left 17 people dead, including sports coach Chris Hixon who died while attempting to disarm the gunman.

In the clip, Hixon’s son, Corey, runs up to Mr Biden and hugs him.

The Democratic politician responds by kissing the boy on his forehead and saying: "It's going to be okay. We're going to be okay. I promise."

Some social media users tweeted that the video, which has been shared online thousands of times, left them in tears, while others applauded the empathy shown by Mr Biden.

One Twitter user wrote on Wednesday: “I had never seen this clip before today, and now I’m sitting here wiping tears from my face.

“Joe Biden is a good man, and he is our only hope to heal and restore the soul of our nation,” the message added.

In response to the footage, Melissa Fumero,  an actor who stars in the comedy show Brooklyn Nine-Nine, tweeted: “This. A return to decency. To humanity. To love. To holding each other up in our darkest moments.”

In an advert run by the campaign group Fellow Americans last month, Hixon’s widow Debra said her oldest son refers to Mr Biden as “Uncle Joe”, adding that the politician has the power to “comfort our nation and bring us together”.

The Parkland video re-emerged on the day that former president Barack Obama told people gathered at a drive-in campaign rally in Philadelphia that Mr Biden and his running partner Kamala Harris could lead the US “out of these dark times”.

In his speech on Wednesday, Mr Obama strongly condemned Donald Trump for failing to take the presidency seriously, for serving his own self-interest and for ignoring the threat of the pandemic.

"I never thought Donald Trump would embrace my vision or continue my policies, but I did hope for the sake of the country that he might show some interest in taking the job seriously," he said.

Additional reporting from AP.