WATCH: Joe Biden Goes Out of His Way to Praise Girl Athletes in His Family, Rails Against Unequal Pay

President Joe Biden went out of his way to praise the women and girls in his family for their athletic prowess, and railed against the gender pay gap in general, and among athletes in particular.

The president sat for an 11-minute interview with ESPN’s Sage Steele, during which he told a pretty hilarious story about living with rabid Philadelphia sports fan Dr. Jill Biden, the punchline of which involved the then-vice president interrupting a meeting of national importance in order to investigate a commotion that turned out to be coming from Jill and a Flyers jersey-clad Champ Biden.

“The dog had the Flyers jersey on. Watching the game,” Biden told a laughing Steele, and then added “Look Philadelphia fans are incredibly knowledgeable fans, but boy are they tough. They are really tough tough fans.”

“They are tough, and what I would do to be a fly on the wall with the first lady yelling and screaming at the TV with the dog right there. I imagine you just have to walk out of the room at times right?” Steele said.

But then without being asked, the president pivoted to doting on the young women in his family, telling Steele “I thought I was a pretty good athlete in high school, when I played ball, baseball and football, and my brothers as well. But the real athletes in our family are the women.”

“I have a young daughter, granddaughter I should say, who is all-state in two sports and almost in a third sport,” Biden said. “I got, all the girls in my family are really competitive, good athletes. I have a niece who is an All-American. Some really really talented women in my family. So I take the back seat to the women in my family.”

“Although we know that back in the day, President Biden was getting it done on the football field at the University of Delaware, but I like that you’re focusing on the women in your family,” Steele said. The president was also a star quarterback in high school.

“Well they are, I’ll tell you what, and it’s about time tthy get paid, by the way,” Biden said, and went on to add that “The idea that these women are getting paid, just overall 82 cents on the dollar, if you’re a Black woman it’s like 55 cents on the dollar generically, just across the board.”

“But the idea that women’s soccer players are getting paid so much less than the men, I just don’t think it’s right. I don’t think it’s fair. And that’s why I’m such a big supporter of Title IX,” Biden said.

“Right, I know you met with Megan Rapinoe and other athletes recently to talk about just that, and that means so much to everybody, not just women, but throughout the sports world,” Steele said.

“I think so too,” Biden said.

Watch above via ESPN.

 

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