The outgoing president’s decision not to run for re-election and instead support his vice president has been received with a mixture of respect and euphoria.
The president of the United States Joe Biden gave his farewell speech at the Democratic National Convention this Monday night, saying: “I have given you the best of me” and enjoying a long applause that reflected the energy released by his decision to give the stage to the vice president Kamala Harris.
Biden, 81, received a hero’s welcome several weeks after many in his party successfully pressured him to abandon his re-election bid following a disastrous debate with Donald Trump.
A late nomination for Harris
A month after that unprecedented mid-campaign shift, the convention’s opening night in Chicago was designed as a platform for the sitting president to make a glorious exit and launch Harris into a confrontation with Trump, whose return to the White House is seen by many Democrats as a existential threatfor the future of American democracy.
On Monday, Biden insisted that, despite reports to the contrary, he harbored no hard feelings about the imminent end of his term, and called on the party to unite around Harris.
Recognition for making way: “Thank you, Joe”
Speaking on this final occasion with clarity and energy, Biden took the opportunity to defend his record, advocate for his vice president and attack Trump. His speech was more reminiscent of the Biden who won in 2020 than the hissing and sometimes incoherent candidate whose performance in the debate caused the fall of his re-election campaign.
Visibly thrilled When he took the stage, Biden was greeted by a more than four-minute ovation and chants of “Thank you Joe.” “America, I love you,” he replied.
A party united around Harris
Biden called choosing Harris as his running mate four years ago “the first decision I made when I became our nominee, and it was the best decision I made in my entire career.”
“She’s tough, experienced and has tremendous integrity,” he said. “Her story represents the best American story. And like many of our best presidents,” she added in a nod to her own career, “she was also vice president.”
First lady Jill Biden alluded to her husband’s heartbreaking decision to drop out of the race in her own remarks before Biden took the stage. She said she had fallen in love with him again “just a few weeks ago, when I saw him dig deep into her soul and decide not to run for re-election and support Kamala Harris“.
Also present to praise Biden was the 2016 candidate, Hillary Clintonwho lost the Electoral College vote to Trump despite beating him by millions in the popular vote.
“Something is happening in America,” he said in his speech. “You can feel it. Something we have worked for and dreamed of for a long time. But first, let’s salute President Biden. He has been the champion of democracy at home and abroad.”
And in a post in X, Barack Obama He showered affection and respect on his former vice president.
“What I admire most about Joe is his decencyare endurance and their unwavering faith in the promise of our country,” Obama wrote. “Over the past four years, those are the values America has needed most. “I am proud to call him my president, and I am very grateful to call him my friend.”
Future vs. Past
Meanwhile, Democrats also sought to keep the focus on Trump, whose criminal convictions they mocked and who they claimed was only fighting for himself, rather than “for the people,” the night’s official motto.
Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow He placed on the lectern a large copy of the “Project 2025“, a plan for a second Trump term prepared by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank along with a coalition of far-right thinkers.
ADVERTISINGBiden, meanwhile, turned his attention to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Trump’s reportedly warmer relationship with the president. Vladimir Putin.
“Just as no commander in chief should bow to a dictator, the way Trump bows to Putin, I have never done it,” he said. “And I promise you that Kamala Harris will never do it, she will never bow down.”
The outgoing president added that Europe and NATO “they were in tatters” when Trump left office, but now the continent is more united than it has been in years thanks to Finland and Sweden joining NATO, as well as Ukraine remaining free almost three years after Putin said that I would take kyiv in three days.
Democrats also worked to keep abortion access at the center of voters’ attention, betting that the issue will propel them to success as it has in other key races since the Supreme Court overturned the case Roe contra Wade two years ago.
ADVERTISINGMonday’s speakers included women whose health care was affected by that decision, and a woman who was raped and became pregnant of his stepfather attacked Trump for trying to roll back access to abortion. The convention program included a video of Trump praising his own role in overturning Roe.
The convention program also paid tribute to the civil rights movement, with an appearance by the Rev. Jesse Jacksonactivist for racial equality since movement of Martin Luther King and former presidential candidate on two occasions.
There were also several references to Fannie Lou Hamerthe late civil rights activist who gave a historic speech at a Democratic convention in 1964. Hamer was a former farm worker and leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a racially integrated group that contested the inclusion of an all-white delegation of Mississippi at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.
Hamer spoke on August 22, 1964, 60 years before Harris publicly accepted the Democratic nomination, becoming the first black woman and first person of South Asian descent nominated for president by a major party.
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