In his first public appearance since Thursday night's contentious 2020 Democratic debate, Joe Biden addressed a large crowd at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Convention in Chicago on Friday afternoon

The former vice president, 76, held hands with his granddaughter, Finnegan, 19, daughter of Hunter Biden, when he described what it was like to raise a young girl. He said, "When your daughter's about 12 and half years old you put this little butterfly in bed and you kiss it goodnight. Next morning you walk in and there's a snake in the bed."

Joe Biden kisses his granddaughter Finnegan Biden, Friday, June 28, 2019, in Chicago. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)

Finnegan Biden looked uncomfortable and Biden's comment was met with some awkward chuckling from the crowd before his quickly segued into speaking about his sharply-criticized performance in the Democratic debate.

The 2020 Democratic presidential front-runner recently skipped a major event in Iowa to attend Finnegan's sister Maisy's graduation from the elite Washington D.C. high school Sidwell Friends, along with Sasha Obama, former President Barack Obama's younger daughter. Maisy, 18, is the youngest of three daughters of Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden, 49.

Her sisters Naomi, 25, and Finnegan also attended Sidwell Friends. Hunter Biden recently married a South African divorcee he had met just 10 days earlier. Hunter Biden dated his brother Beau's widow after divorcing Maisy's mother Kathleen in 2017. He currently faces a paternity suit from an Arkansas woman.

Biden has made the odd quip about butterflies and snakes several times before.