http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/24/joe-biden

Joe Biden explains decision to drop out of the election: ‘Best way to unite our nation’

In Oval Office address, Biden said it was time for ‘fresh voices’, emphasized his track record and endorsement of Kamala Harris

Joan E Greve and Helen SullivanThu 25 Jul 2024 00.00 EDTShare

Joe Biden addressed the nation Wednesday to explain his historic decision to withdraw from the presidential race, delivering a reflective and hopeful message about the need to begin a new chapter in America’s story.

“I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future all merited a second term, but nothing – nothing – can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition,” Biden said in the Oval Office.

“So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation. You know, there is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life. There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices – yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.”

The speech came three days after Biden stunned the country with the announcement he would abandon his presidential campaign less than four months before election day. As he contemplated the legacy of his five decades in public life, Biden pledged to keep working to better Americans’ lives as he concludes his first – and now only – term as president. Some Republican lawmakers have suggested Biden should resign rather than finish out his term, but the president firmly rejected those calls on Wednesday.

“Over the next six months, I’ll be focused on doing my job as president,” he said. “That means I’ll continue to lower costs for hard-working families [and] grow our economy. I’ll keep defending our personal freedoms and our civil rights – from the right to vote to the right to choose.”

Biden specifically vowed to “keep working to end the war in Gaza, bring home all the hostages and bring peace and security to the Middle East”. Hours before Biden’s speech, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, delivered a divisive address to a rare joint session of Congress in which he called for “total victory” in the war.

Biden cited his own leadership on foreign policy, including his staunch support for Ukraine amid its war against Russia, as one of his proudest accomplishments. He reminded voters about the legislation he has signed to tackle the climate crisis, reduce gun violence and expand healthcare access. Harkening back to the day of his inauguration in 2021, weeks after the January 6 attack on the Capitol and less than a year into the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Biden marveled at how far the country had come in such a short time.

“We were in the grip of the worst pandemic in the century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the worst attack on our democracy since the civil war,” Biden said. “We came together as Americans. We got through it. We emerged stronger, more prosperous and more secure.”

After withdrawing from the race on Sunday, Biden endorsed his vice-president Kamala Harris, who has already consolidated the support of enough delegates to capture the Democratic nomination next month. In his speech, Biden reiterated his praise of Harris and underscored the immense choice facing voters this November.

“I’d like to thank our great vice-president, Kamala Harris,” Biden said. “She’s experienced, she’s tough, she’s capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country. Now the choice is up to you, the American people.”

Before Biden’s announcement on Sunday, more than 30 Democratic members of Congress had called on the president to drop out of the race following his disastrous debate performance last month. In the days leading up to the announcement, polls showed an increasing number of Democrats believed Biden should step aside as Donald Trump’s narrow lead in the race began to grow.

Early surveys taken since Sunday suggest a neck-and-neck race between Trump and Harris, but the vice-president already appears to be in a slightly stronger position than Biden was. Even as polls indicate a tight race, Biden expressed confidence that Americans would choose to preserve democracy this November. Quoting the Declaration of Independence and founding father Benjamin Franklin, Biden made the time-honored argument for American exceptionalism.

“America is an idea, an idea stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, more powerful than any dictator or tyrant. It’s the most powerful idea in the history of the world,” Biden said. “That idea is that we hold these truths to be self-evident. We’re all created equal, endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. We’ve never fully lived up to it, to this sacred idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either, and I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.”

It was a message that echoed Biden’s campaign slogan in 2020, which framed the election against Trump as a “battle for the soul of the nation”. That battle remains ongoing, Biden said, and it will now be up to the American people to decide how it will end.

“The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule. The people do,” Biden said. “History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. You just have to keep faith – keep the faith – and remember who we are.”

Shortly after Biden spoke, Barack Obama, under whom Biden served as vice-president for two terms, thanked him. On X, Obama quoted part of a line from the speech – “The truth, the sacred cause of this country, is larger than any one of us,”– and said, “Joe Biden has stayed true to these words again and again over a lifetime of service to the American people.” Obama has so far notably refrained from endorsing Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate.

House speaker emerita, Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement that Biden has shown he is on the right side of both history and the future. In a statement released after Biden’s Oval Office address, she called him “one of America’s most consequential presidents”.

And Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer called Biden’s decision to withdraw “a great act of patriotism for this country you love so much”.

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http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/24/biden-oval-office-address-key-takeaways

‘Capable’ Harris and Biden’s legacy: key takeaways from the president’s address

Joe Biden gave his first speech since quitting the race – here’s what to know from the roughly 10-minute address

Coral Murphy MarcosWed 24 Jul 2024 21.36 EDTShare

Joe Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday night in an emotional speech that encompassed some of the reasons that led him to withdraw from the presidential race. This was the first speech Biden has made since he announced his withdrawal from the race on Sunday.

Most notably, the 81-year-old president, who was recovering from Covid-19 this week, highlighted the importance of passing the torch to a new generation, referring to his endorsement for Kamala Harris as the new contender for November’s elections.

In a roughly 10-minute speech, Biden pointed to the threat that he says Donald Trump poses to democracy in the US.

“When Ben Franklin was asked,” Biden said, “as he emerged from the convention going on, whether the founders have given America a monarchy or a Republic, Franklin’s response was: a republic, if you can keep it.”

“Whether we keep our republic is now in your hands,” Biden said.

Here are the key takeaways:

1. 1. Biden delivered a short, poignant speech focused on the weight of the officeBiden started his speech on Wednesday by noting that he was sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. He then referenced former presidents who have held the office.“In this sacred space, I’m surrounded by portraits of extraordinary American presidents,” he said in the beginning of his speech. “Thomas Jefferson wrote the immortal words that guide this nation. George Washington showed us presidents are not kings.”Biden questioned, notably, if the character of a president still matters, and without naming Donald Trump, asked voters to question whether the Republican nominee would uphold the sanctity of the presidency or US democracy.
2. 2. He passed the torch to Kamala Harris and expressed his supportIn the much-awaited address, Biden explained his decision to withdraw his re-election campaign. “This sacred task of perfecting our union is not about me, it’s about you,” Biden said, and then turned the focus to his vice-president, who is now the most likely Democratic nominee. Biden commended Harris for her work, calling her an “experienced”, “tough” and “capable” candidate. “I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That is the best way to unite our nation,” he said. Biden had endorsed Harris soon after his announcement on Sunday.
3. 3. Biden reminded people of his legacy and his plans to call for supreme court reformBiden said that over the next six months, he will focus on “lowering costs”, growing the economy, and fighting against gun violence and the climate crisis.  He also said that he will call for a supreme court reform, calling it “critical to our democracy”. “I’ll keep fighting for my cancer moonshot,” he said, referring to his efforts to find a cure for cancer that began years before his presidency.He ended on a personal message to his voters. “I hope you have some idea of how grateful I am,” Biden said. “History is in your hands.”

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http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/24/biden-speech-trump
Analysis

Biden’s address was a moving piece of political theatre and a rebuke of Trump

David Smithin Washington

Biden called for generational change and buried his resentments, but not without a pointed comment about his qualificationsWed 24 Jul 2024 23.05 EDTShare

There was 6 January 2021, and a violent coup attempt by a president desperately trying to cling to power. Then there was 24 July 2024, and a president explaining why he was giving up the most powerful job in the world.

Joe Biden’s address on Wednesday night was a moving piece of political theatre, the start of a farewell tour by “a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings” who entered politics in 1972 and made it all the way to the Oval Office. For diehard Democrats it was a case of: if you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

The speech was also a rebuke of his predecessor Donald Trump’s authoritarian impulses in both word and deed. Although he never mentioned his predecessor by name, Biden laid out two radically different visions of the US presidency set to clash again in November.

Last Sunday the 46th president bowed to a chorus of fellow Democrats questioning his age and mental acuity and announced that he would drop out of the presidential election. On Wednesday, recovered from the coronavirus, the 81-year-old made his first public remarks to explain why.

Speaking against the backdrop of window, two flags, gold curtains and family photos including his late son Beau, Biden began by citing the Oval Office portraits of former presidents Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.

“I revere this office but I love my country more,” he said. “It’s been the honour of my life to serve as your president. But in the defence of democracy, which is at stake, I think it’s more important than any title.”

It was a definitive rebuke of Trump, a man who has slapped his name on countless buildings and for whom the title is everything. Backed by the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank, the Republican nominee is intent on an expansion of presidential power. But by giving power away – in what Hillary Clinton described “as pure an act of patriotism as I have seen in my lifetime” – Biden demonstrated he will always be the bigger man.

Indeed, despite having months to prepare for this contingency, the Trump campaign has been struggling to find a strategy to take on the new Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris. Perhaps they were not quite able to believe that Biden would step aside because they know Trump never would.

Biden wore a dark blue suit, white shirt, blue tie and US flag pin. There were no major gaffes but there were slight stumbles over certain words. Sitting off-camera to his left were his son Hunter and other family members. According to a pool reporter in the Oval Office, at one point Biden’s daughter Ashley reached for the hand of her mother, Jill Biden, who was sitting next to her.

(Trump, who claims he recently “took a bullet for democracy”, watched the address on his plane after a characteristically mendacious and narcissistic campaign rally in North Carolina.)

Biden is the first incumbent to announce he would not seek re-election since Lyndon Johnson in 1968, although some historians argue that Johnson secretly hoped for a breakthrough in the Vietnam war and for his party to come begging for him to make a comeback.

Still, some of the parallels are irresistible. For Johnson, coming after the younger, more glamorous John F Kennedy, remarkable legislative achievements at home were clouded by the war in Vietnam. For Biden, coming after the younger, more glamorous Barack Obama, remarkable legislative achievements at home have been clouded by the war on Gaza. Just as in 1968, expect protests at next month’s Democratic national convention in Chicago.

But whereas Johnson announced that he would not seek re-election at the end of a long and winding 40-minute speech, Biden, recovering from Covid-19, first did so via Twitter/X. And he quickly anointed a successor in Harris.

Biden reportedly has mixed feelings about being pushed aside by some of those same Democrats now singing his praises. The presidency had been his lifelong ambition – he first ran in 1988 – and his victory in 2020 was a vindication of everyman strivers everywhere. On top of that, he did the job rather well. Yet now they were telling him enough. In his Oval Office address, he buried those resentments deep in his soul, though he could not resist a pointed comment about his qualifications.

“I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term,” he said. “But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.”

He made a call for generational change in a country facing its first presidential election without a Bush, Clinton or Biden on the ticket since 1976. “I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.

“It’s the best way to unite our nation. I know there was a time and a place for long years of experience in public life. There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.”

That may seem to leave Biden a lame duck for his final six months. But he vowed to continue to pursue his agenda and slipped in an important line about calling for reform of the supreme court – a court that became embroiled in ethics scandals, overturned the constitutional right to abortion and declared presidents immune from prosecution for official acts.

“The great thing about America is, here kings and dictators do not rule – the people do,” Biden concluded. “History is in your hands. The power’s in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. You just have to keep faith – keep the faith – and remember who we are.”

In 2020, the year of a global pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests and Trump trauma, Biden’s signature empathy born of personal tragedies made him the right man at the right time to heal hearts and defend democracy. In 2024, his time has passed. That he came to recognise it reluctantly, and decided to pass the baton, taught a lesson about the presidency that Trump will never learn.