In his speech, President Biden argued that if voters elect Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him, it will mean that “democracy is preserved” once again: NAJ screen shot

By Glynn Wilson –

President Joe Biden finally took the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time, and delivered an energetic address urging people to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to defeat the hateful selfishness of Donald Trump one more time, to save democracy one more time.

Headlining opening night on Monday with a valedictory speech that was supposed to have supercharged his final push for a second term, instead it served as an opportunity to pass the torch to Vice President Harris. Biden used the speech to argue that Harris is the best person to carry on his legacy and to save the country from another disastrous Trump term in the White House. Her candidacy as the party’s standard-bearer is the natural result of the choice he made four years ago to place her just a heartbeat away from the presidency.

He said it was the best decision he ever made. It was the “best decision I made my whole career,” he said, praising her as “tough” and “experienced” with “enormous integrity.”

That is not the case he expected to be making just over a month ago, before his stunning political demise following a debate performance in June that raised doubts about his age and vitality. But Biden and his top aides, including Mike Donilon, his chief strategist, spent the last several days at Camp David reworking the speech for the new moment.

“It’s been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your president,” he said in a 52-minute speech capping the first night of the convention. “I love the job, but I love my country more. I love my country more. And all this talk about how I’m angry at all the people who said I should step down — it’s not true.”

The crowd chanted, “We love Joe! We love Joe!”

“I love my country more,” Biden repeated, “and we need to preserve our democracy.”

Citing song lyrics, he offered a valedictory. “America, America, I gave my best to you,” he said. “I made a lot of mistakes in my career. Well, I gave my best to you for 50 years. Like many of you, I’ve given my heart and soul to our nation, and I’ve been blessed a million times in return with the support of the American people.”

Biden will only make only a brief appearance at the political celebration. Around midnight, he and First Lady Jill Biden will fly to California for the start of a two-week vacation that will keep him out of the spotlight as Harris formally assumes her place as the new face of the Democratic Party.

The president delivered his address to a convention hall filled with delegates who had been among his strongest supporters when he was a candidate. Organizers, who decorated the hall with digital banners displaying common Bidenisms like “spread the faith,” showed an outpouring of affection for the 81-year-old president as he took the stage.

Some had braced for potential disruptions among a few dozen uncommitted delegates who could have used the speech as a moment to highlight their dissatisfaction with what they view as Biden’s lack of support for Palestinians in Gaza. But it never materialized.

Parts of the speech reviewed the accomplishments his administration made in nearly four years that he believes provide the foundation to argue for another four years of Democratic rule. Before dropping out of the race, Biden regularly claimed that historians said he had accomplished more of consequence than any president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. He may prove right about that.

Biden reminded voters of the Covid pandemic that had plunged the country and the rest of the world into fear and economic chaos at the start of his term, and his efforts to return communities to normal. A large economic stimulus package and an embrace of vaccinations eventually pushed the virus into the background of the country’s consciousness.

He talked about his domestic policy successes: low unemployment, millions of new jobs and legislation to protect the environment, repair crumbling infrastructure, lower the cost of some drugs and accelerate American investment in silicon chip manufacturing. He also talked about his administration’s leadership abroad, including the efforts to counter Russian aggression against Ukraine.

But the president also focused on the stakes of the 2024 election and what he sees as the existential danger if voters choose to return former President Donald Trump to the Oval Office, with the support of his neo-Nazi friends. Biden has long said he was motivated to run in 2020 by the threat that he believed Trump posed to basic democratic norms. He argued that if voters elect Harris, it will mean that “democracy is preserved.”

The president’s address was a bittersweet moment for him, although he just called it “memorable” in answer to a question about that from a correspondent at CBS News. Because of the pandemic in 2020, Biden’s convention was mostly held virtually, depriving him of the balloon-drop moment that he had sought several times during his lifetime.

But this week’s convention — now built around Harris instead — will be a demonstration of the campaign machine that he assembled over the past year, and largely handed over to the vice president when he backed out of the race and endorsed her.

“Put a prosecutor in office instead of a felon,” Biden said at one point.

Watch the video for yourself:

___
If you support truth in reporting with no paywall, and fearless writing with no popup ads or sponsored content, consider making a contribution today with GoFundMe or Patreon or PayPal.