WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden framed the decision to end his re-election campaign as a “defense of democracy” in an Oval Office address Wednesday night.
“I revere this office, but I love my country more. … The defense of democracy, which is at stake, is more important than any title,” Biden said. “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 futures. It’s about ‘We the People.’”
It is rare for a president to relinquish power voluntarily, without the force of rejection by the electorate or the limits of the Constitution. Biden, who acceded to heavy pressure from within his own party to step aside as a candidate, cast his choice as one made in the interest of the nation and called on Americans to join him to “preserve our democracy.”
He and other Democrats consistently argue that former President Donald Trump, whose refusal to concede after he lost the 2020 election to Biden culminated in a mob attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to stop the certification process, is a threat to democracy.
“America’s going to have to choose between moving forward or backward,” 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, which came three days after he dropped his bid, is the beginning of Biden’s efforts to shape his legacy following a disastrous debate performance in late June that left members of his party calling for him to step off the campaign trail and allow another candidate to run against Trump. Many Democrats believed Biden’s bumbling debate performance and halting push to clean it up made his path to re-election impossible.
“I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” Biden said in remarks delivered in a low tone and, at times, in a halting fashion. “That is the best way to unite our nation.”
At a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday night, Trump went after his former opponent. “Three days ago, we officially defeated the worst president in the history of our country, crooked Joe Biden,” he said.
Biden abandoned his re-election campaign early Sunday afternoon, announcing the decision in a post on X that he followed about half an hour later with an endorsement of his vice president, Kamala Harris, for the Democratic presidential nomination.
She quickly consolidated support from within their party and is expected to win a virtual roll call of Democratic delegates — perhaps without opposition — as early as Aug. 1 and no later than Aug. 7.
Biden offered praise for Harris on Wednesday night.
“She’s experienced, she’s tough, she’s capable,” Biden said. “She’s been an incredible partner to me and leader for our country.”
In leaving the nomination to her, Biden became the first eligible incumbent to cede his party’s presidential nod since Lyndon Johnson in 1968. That was two years before Biden first ran for office in Delaware, a New Castle County Council seat that he won.
Two years later, at age 29, he defeated Republican Sen. Caleb Boggs in a tightly contested campaign. Biden would win six more terms in the Senate — where he was chairman of the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees at different times — with the last victory coming the same year, 2008, he was elected vice president. Along with President Barack Obama, Biden won re-election as vice president in 2012. He came out of retirement to defeat a crowded field of rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and ultimately beat Trump that November.
His decision to retire rather than remain on the 2024 ballot means he will finish his career undefeated in general elections — though he ran and lost in presidential primaries in 1988 and 2008. It also brings to an end a career focused on the presidency. Biden first contemplated running for the Oval Office in the first election in which he was old enough — 1980 — and at least considered bids in most of the years when no Democratic incumbent was on the ballot.
Once regarded as a centrist within his party, Biden won support from progressives in Congress early on in his administration. He and his Democratic allies credit him with enacting the most sweeping domestic agenda since the Johnson administration — a claim that is hard to measure and with which critics take issue.
No matter the metric, Biden signed into law major measures with profound effects on the country, including a nearly $2 trillion Covid-relief measure, a trillion-dollar infrastructure package and a bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act that included significant provisions aimed at controlling climate change.
In addition to putting Harris — the first woman, first Black woman and first Asian American person to be vice president — on his ticket, he appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman confirmed to the Supreme Court.
Biden said Wednesday night that his record “merited a second term.”
But, he said, “nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.”
Biden pledged to pursue his agenda until a new president is sworn in on Jan. 20.
“Over 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 keep defending 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 in an implicit call for Americans to reject his longtime rival.
“The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule,” he said. “The people do. History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands.”
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