Biden to Veterans: 'You Guys Don't Have a Damn Thing to Be Ashamed Of'

Vice President Joe Biden visited wounded veterans yesterday in Las Vegas, and told them, "You guys don't have a damn thing to be ashamed of." It is not clear why Biden might think veterans would be ashamed.

But here's the context of the quotation, from the pool report: 

Biden said veterans are "conditioned not to ask" for help.

"You guys don't have a damn thing to be ashamed of," he told the crowd. "We owe you. We owe you."

The vice president also said:

that he did not want veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to be shunned as he saw with veterans returning from the Vietnam War.

"2.8 million volunteered after 9/11, 2.2 million walked across those damn scorching sands of Iraq and open mountains of Afghanistan, and we want to make sure that when they came home they didn't run into the same resistance."

Biden also expressed that the U.S. has an obligation to provide health care to veterans for the remainder of their lives.

Pulling a piece of paper from his back right pocket, Biden recited the numbers of those killed and wounded in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.

"I always want to make sure I have the exact number because every life is sacred."