President Joe Biden will “pass the torch” and not run for reelection in order to “unite the country,” he said in a primetime address from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening.
Biden, who has been quarantining for the past week after contracting COVID-19, announced his decision to terminate his reelection bid and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday.
The president’s decision came after three weeks of mounting pressure from his own party to exit the race, following a disastrous debate performance on June 27.
On Wednesday, Biden spoke to the public for the first time since his Sunday announcement.
In an 11-minute speech, he discussed his reasoning for ending his reelection bid and declared his intentions to finish his term as president.
“In recent weeks, it’s become clear to me I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor,” Biden said.
The president said he believed his record deserves a second term in office. “But, nothing — nothing — can come in the way of saving our democracy,” he said. “That includes personal ambition. So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That is the best way to unite our nation.”
Biden did not mention his health or cognitive stamina — both major concerns behind calls for him to end his reelection bid — nor did he mention by name former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.
Before suspending his campaign on Sunday, Biden trailed Trump in the polls in key battleground states.
While Biden has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the party’s nominee in November’s election, he insists he will finish his term as president, which ends in January.
“Over the next six months I will be focused on doing my job as President,” Biden said.
Biden’s decision to drop out of the race was met with a mixture of optimism and sadness among Democrats.
But by Monday evening, the party had unified behind Harris. She inherited Biden’s campaign apparatus and war chest, and within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement, she broke an all-time presidential fundraising record, pulling in over $81 million.
By Tuesday morning, Harris had secured commitments from enough delegates to be voted the party’s nominee. Party leaders plan to hold a vote in early August, before the Democratic National Convention.
Biden mentioned Harris by name on Wednesday night, calling her an “incredible partner to me and a leader for our country.”
“She’s experienced. She’s tough, she’s capable,” he said.
The president highlighted a major argument of his campaign: that democracy is in jeopardy this election, and a Democratic victory is necessary to salvage it. “I ran for president four years ago because I believed, and still do that, the soul of America was a stake,” he said. “The very nature of who we are was at stake. That’s still the case.”
Americans need to choose between “moving forward or backward, between hope or hate, between unity or division,” he said. “We have to decide: Do we still believe in honesty, decency, respect, freedom, justice, and democracy?”
One of Biden’s key justifications behind his reelection bid was his decades of experience in the Senate, as vice president and as president. “There is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life,” he acknowledged. “There’s also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices. Yes, younger voices. And that time is now.”
Major television networks — including ABC, CBS and Fox — aired Biden’s speech live, as is customary for primetime speeches from the Oval Office. Moments after the president concluded his remarks, Chris LaCivita, a Trump campaign co-manager, announced the networks would be “getting follow up letters from our attorneys regarding equal time.”