WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden shaped the decision to close his re-election campaign as a “defense of democracy” in an Oval Office speech Wednesday night.
“I venerate this position, but I love my country more. Defending democracy is more important than any title,” said Biden. “I draw strength and find joy in working for the American people. But this sacred task of perfecting our union is not about me. It’s about you. Your families. Your future. It’s about ‘We the People.'”
It is rare for a president to voluntarily relinquish power, without the force of the electorate’s rejection or the limits of the Constitution. Biden, who bowed to strong pressure from within his own party to step aside as a candidate, called his choice made in the nation’s interest and called on Americans to join him in “preserving our democracy.”
He and other Democrats consistently argue that the former President Donald Trumpwhose refusal to concede after losing the 2020 election to Biden culminated in a mob attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an effort to stop the certification process, is a threat to democracy.
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“America will have to choose between moving forward or backwards,” Biden said, without directly mentioning Trump. “Between hope and hate. Between unity and division.”
He added: “Our republic is now in your hands.”
The speech, delivered three days after he withdrew from the candidacy, is the start of Biden’s campaign efforts to shape his legacy following a disastrous debate performance in late June that left members of his party calling for him to quit the campaign and allow another candidate to run against Trump. Many Democrats believed that Biden’s clumsy debate performance and hesitancy in trying to clear it made his path to re-election impossible.
“I have decided that the best path forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” Biden said in comments delivered in a low tone and at times hesitantly.
At a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday night, Trump lashed out at his former adversary. “Three days ago, we officially defeated the worst president in the history of our country, the corrupt Joe Biden,” he said.
Biden abandoned his reelection campaign early Sunday afternoon, announcing the decision in a post on X that followed about half an hour later with the endorsement of his vice president, Kamala Harris, for the Democratic presidential nomination.
She quickly consolidated support from within the party and is expected to win a virtual slate of Democratic delegates – perhaps unopposed – as early as August 1 and no later than August 7.
Biden praised Harris on Wednesday night.
“She’s experienced, she’s tough, she’s capable,” Biden said. “She has been an incredible partner to me and leader of our country.”
By leaving the nomination to her, Biden became the first eligible incumbent to cede his party’s presidential nomination since Lyndon Johnson in 1968. This was two years before Biden first ran for office in Delaware, a seat on the County Council of New Castle which he conquered.
Two years later, at age 29, he defeated Republican Senator Caleb Boggs in a close campaign. Biden would win six more terms in the Senate – where he was president of the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees at different times – with the last victory occurring in the same year, 2008, in which he was elected vice president. Along with President Barack Obama, Biden was reelected as vice president in 2012. He came out of retirement to defeat a crowded field of rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and ultimately defeated Trump that November.
His decision to retire rather than remain in the 2024 election means he will finish his career undefeated in general elections – although he ran and lost in presidential primaries in 1988 and 2008. It also ends a career centered on the presidency. Biden first contemplated running for the Oval Office in the first election in which he was old enough — 1980 — and has at least considered running in most years when no Democratic candidate was on the ballot.
Once considered a centrist within his party, Biden won the support of progressives in Congress early in his administration. He and his Democratic allies credit him with implementing the most comprehensive domestic agenda since the Johnson administration — a claim that is difficult to measure and that critics dispute.
Regardless of the metric, Biden signed into law important measures with profound effects on the country, including a nearly $2 billion Covid relief measure, a billion-dollar infrastructure package and a bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act. which included significant provisions aimed at controlling Climate Change.
In addition to putting Harris – the first woman, the first black woman and the first Asian American to be vice president – on his ticket, he nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman confirmed to the Supreme Court.
Biden said Wednesday night that his record “deserved a second term.”
But, he said, “nothing, nothing can stand in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.”
Biden has promised to pursue his agenda until a new president takes office on January 20.
“For the next six months, I will be focused on doing my job as president,” he said. “That means I will continue to lower costs for hard-working families and grow our economy. I will continue to defend our personal freedoms and our civil rights – from the right to vote to the right to choose.”
He also nodded to what he sees as the danger of a second Trump presidency, an implicit call for Americans to reject his longtime rival.
“The best of America is here, kings and dictators don’t rule,” he said. “The people govern. The story is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America is in your hands.”
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
