He said he organized a local benefit for Biden in the 1980s, when the then-U.S. senator from Delaware was running for president. Moore said he had brought his son to the event, at a Holiday Inn, and Terry Jr. went to Biden “like a magnet.” Moore said he knows Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, who has played a major role in her brother’s political campaigns.

Moore said the two men have more in common than their political leanings. Both have been in their careers a long time, entering at relatively young ages. When Biden was sworn into his first term as a U.S. senator, in 1973, he was just 30 — the minimum age for that job. He was then one of the youngest people to become a senator. Moore said that he became the youngest central body labor leader elected as president when he took the reins of the Omaha Federation of Labor about 41 years ago, in 1976.

Both men are also Catholics who take great comfort in their faith. That was a major talking point in the Thursday phone call, Moore said.

He said Biden told him that “through the grace of God, you’ll make it through, each day at a time.”

Moore said the call was emotional for him. He said his voice cracked several times. Biden would tell him to take his time.