CHICAGO — This won’t be the convention President Joe Biden planned.
A month ago, Biden was ready to wrap up the Democratic party by accepting the nomination with bold statements about how his second term would build on the successes of his first. Instead, he will open Monday’s convention to claim Vice President Kamala Harris as the torchbearer.
It’s a turnaround that Democrats have greeted with joy, sadness, lingering hard feelings and, for some, outright anger.
The complex dynamic has led congressional planners and party leaders to pay tribute to the outgoing president. building on new found enthusiasm Within the party on the rise of Harris.
Democrats are expected to pay tribute to Harris in speeches throughout the week, using what the party sees as an act of sacrifice as an inspiration to rally behind Harris and defeat former President Donald Trump.
With his remarks for Monday, Biden is positioning himself as a bridge of divisiveness.
“It’s going to be a great opportunity for the party to take advantage of this moment of unity,” said Bill Russo, who worked in Biden’s vice presidential office, 2020 campaign and State Department. A longtime “Biden people,” a message of unity coming directly from Biden “will help solidify it,” he said. The Monday slot, Russo said, also “gives him a prominent and respected place to begin programming for the week.”
The extraordinary personal and political sea change Biden has undergone over the past month is unlike any other president in recent history. He went from being an entrenched leader of the party to voluntarily relinquishing power without electors or term limits, a rare move in modern politics.
His decision set the campaign on a new trajectory. Harris surged in the polls, drew crowds of 10,000 or more in battleground states, attracted hundreds of thousands of new volunteers and blew up fundraising.
But Democrats say the party’s deep gratitude for Biden’s decision is overwhelming, and they predict the United Center will roar with a standing ovation when he takes the stage.
“He’s going to get a really hagiographic and valedictory convention,” said Wade Randlett, a longtime Democratic fundraiser. “I expect there will be borderline deification of President Biden at the convention, like 100 speakers in a row saying, ‘Oh my God, Joe Biden is so great.’ And this will increase his shares in general.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said, “I and others know the courage and love of country he has shown in making this very difficult decision.”
A Harris campaign aide said: “He’s not going to be able to speak, there’s going to be a lot of cheering. “People in the Democratic Party appreciate him now more than ever.”
Even during Biden’s most difficult times in office, Democrats agreed that he had accomplished things, including leading the nation out of the pandemic and passing a major infrastructure package. However, doubts have grown about Biden’s ability to mount a strong campaign after a devastating debate against Trump in late June. Calls within the party for him to withdraw from the race are growing steadily.
In early July, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., reportedly tried to rally a group of Democrats to rally. Ask Biden to drop out.
“I don’t know anyone in those difficult weeks who didn’t start with the idea that Joe Biden was a great president and we owe him a lot,” Warner said.
As a show of appreciation for Biden’s contributions to the party, several tributes are planned during the convention, including by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.
Coons said that in recent talks, Biden has already moved on to planning how he wants to close out his time in office.
“He was already looking ahead, talking about what he could achieve in the last six months of the term and how he could have the biggest impact. He asked what I thought we should do and spoke positively about the Harris campaign,” Coons said. “He’s excited to campaign. I think he’s going to campaign hard in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.”
Chris Korge, national finance chairman of the Harris Victory Fund, said demand for admissions was through the roof Monday night as party members wanted to show their “incredible respect for Joe Biden.”
“People understand what Joe Biden has done as president for the past four years, and that’s the basis for why and how Kamala Harris will be the 47th president of the United States,” Korge said. “People see how selfless it is for Joe Biden. I’ve heard it from so many people that he decided not to run — it wasn’t because he didn’t think he was going to win — he thought it was the right time for him and he decided the next generation is moving forward.”
Some still have strong feelings about how things turned out. These include First Lady Jill Biden. expressing concern privately about how some Democrats treated her husband.
“I spoke to 100 early Bidens, from members of the House of Representatives to senators to members of the National Finance Committee,” said one source familiar with the internal discussions, who requested anonymity to disclose private conversations. “It was unfair, unwise and unfair. People who do this will not reflect well on their behavior in history. … I have very hard feelings for people who push Joe, but Kamala Harris is not one of them. He was not Judas at all.’
Chris Dodd, a former senator from Connecticut and a longtime friend of Biden’s who spoke with him by phone, said Biden is looking to the future and not focusing on complaints.
“I would be shocked to hear that someone I know, Joe Biden, goes around holding grudges against people,” said Dodd, who has a 50-year friendship with the president. Dodd said he hopes the tributes pouring in Monday will touch on Biden as a person and remember his time in office. “In 50 years of public life, I don’t know that I have ever met a more dignified, kind and thoughtful person in public life than President Joe Biden.”