Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, said Biden's past tragedies, including the deaths of his first wife and daughter in a car accident and his son to brain cancer, uniquely positioned the president to comfort Americans about the grim anniversary. "He really genuinely does feel people's pain because he's had so much of it in his life," Perry said. "He seems so comfortable in the role, which, in turn, makes him the perfect comforter-in-chief.”