CHICAGO — In his political swan song less than a month after abandoning his campaign for a second term, President Joe Biden on Monday praised his presidency and called on fellow Democrats to help elect a vice president Kamala Harris succeeding him in November.
“Join me in pledging your whole heart to this effort — my heart will be here,” Biden said on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention.
In speeches that ended well after midnight on the East Coast, he highlighted a long list of accomplishments, from major infrastructure and climate change legislation to lowering prescription drug prices for seniors and fighting the Covid pandemic.
Biden received a thunderous standing ovation, chants of “Thank you, Joe” drowning out his attempts to begin his speech. and waving thousands of signs that read “We ❤️ Joe.” when presented. Monday was a bittersweet moment for a party seeking to elevate Biden and turn the page from his past to his future after reaching out to him a few weeks ago.
As he began to speak, Democrats in the crowd at the United Center could be seen fighting back or wiping away tears.
This was not the convention speech Biden was expected to deliver. He planned to accept the second presidency then candidacy this week. But her disastrous June debate against Republican nominee former President Donald Trump fueled calls from Democrats for her to drop out. For more than three weeks, Biden has vowed to keep fighting. Then, as pressure from his own party continued to mount, he announced in separate written statements on July 21 that he would withdraw his candidacy and endorse Harris.
After he left the campaign and confirmed that he would go to Harris, Democrats began to honor him — a process that ended Monday when thousands of delegates embraced their winter lions with applause. Many Democrats say it is the latest political act to give up his power to improve his chances of defeating Trump. altruism.
“I think the dedication is hard to put into words,” he said. Casten said Biden has given his life to public office, peaked and stepped aside. “We don’t get many examples of that in American history.”
According to Biden, his presidency has been a great success that has done nothing but “save democracy” from Trump. And he said, “We have to save democracy again in 2024.”
Quoting the “American Anthem” song written by Gene Scheer and recorded by Norah Jones, he concluded, “America, I’ve done my best for you.”
Certainly his audience was in the arena, and the broader Democratic electorate agreed with him.
Rep. Lorraine Miller of Texas, who is the secretary of the US House of Representatives, said she suffered through tight security and long lines to get into the United Center so she could attend to honor Biden.
“That’s the only reason I’m here,” he said. “The point of the evening is to thank Joe Biden for passing the baton. He deserves a thank you from the party.”
Most of Monday night’s speakers, like Biden, tried to be respectful of his political career A few weeks after Harris rose to the top of the Democratic ticket, the campaign dragged on.
“He was a champion of democracy at home and abroad,” said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee. thunderous applause. “He brought dignity, dignity and competence to the White House. He exemplified what it means to be a true patriot.”
But most of Clinton’s remarks were about Harris and the history of women in politics and government. If Harris wins, she will break the glass ceiling that Clinton could only crack as the first woman nominated by a major party for president.
“On the other side of that glass ceiling, Kamala Harris is raising her hand and being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States,” Clinton said. “When a barrier falls on one of us, it falls, falls and opens the way for all of us.”
Two members of Biden’s family, first lady Jill Biden and first daughter Ashley Biden, shared their warm, private memories of her husband and father, who spent most of his life in the public eye.
“There are moments when I fall in love with him all over again,” Jill Biden said.
Earlier in the day, the president spent some free time at his hotel, preparing for his book address and meeting with longtime supporters. At his downtown hotel, Biden surprised some of the several dozen supporters who flew in on a charter plane from Delaware on Monday to attend his speech.
The Rev. Christopher Bullock, pastor of Canaan Baptist Church in New Castle, joked that Biden was “still working the room as a candidate for office.”
In 1976, at his first convention as a senator, Biden was invited to act as a floor whip and television surrogate for the party’s nominee, Jimmy Carter. “I have to make up three to four hours of tube time,” Biden told the Wilmington News Journal on the eve of that convention.
Forty-eight years later, with six terms as senator, two terms as vice president and almost a full term as president under his belt, Biden once again finds himself in the role of claiming someone else’s role as commander-in-chief. As painful as the turn of events was for him, he seems to have had no trouble promoting Harris.
“Choosing Kamala was the first decision I made when we ran,” he said of his call to put her on the ballot as his running mate in 2020. “It’s the best decision I’ve ever made.”