U.S. President Joe Biden will deliver his first public remarks Wednesday evening since ending his campaign for a second term, where he is expected to lay out his reasoning and his goals for the rest of his presidency.
Biden will speak in a primetime televised address from the Oval Office at 8 p.m. Eastern, delivering highly anticipated remarks that will also lay out his administrative record — a legacy Democrats now hope will be continued by Vice-President Kamala Harris, who Biden endorsed upon dropping out and has become the new presumptive nominee.
“The president wants to build on those historical initiatives that he’s been able to get done,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday in previewing the speech. She pointed to sweeping domestic legislation, renewal of alliances abroad and other accomplishments Biden has achieved despite “a difficult political climate.”
Harris, addressing the historically Black sorority Zeta Phi Beta in Indianapolis on Wednesday, previewed Biden’s remarks, saying, “He will talk about not only the work, the extraordinary work, that he has accomplished, but about his work in the next six months.”
Biden made the shocking announcement he was ending his re-election bid in a letter posted to social media on Sunday, sending Democrats scrambling to find a new way forward with just over 100 days before the presidential election in November.
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The party quickly coalesced around Harris, with top lawmakers and a majority of delegates previously pledged to Biden offering their endorsements. The party also raised a record US$81 million in the 24 hours after Harris launched her campaign.
That enthusiasm marked a rapid turnaround after three weeks of panic and growing calls for Biden to leave the race after the president’s disastrous debate performance last month, where Biden struggled to finish sentences and mount arguments against his Republican opponent Donald Trump.
Over the ensuing 25 days, a growing number of Democratic lawmakers and notable party supporters made the case that Biden was no longer an effective candidate who could beat Trump, urging him to step aside. Donors stopped writing cheques, with some publicly stating they wouldn’t resume contributions until Biden was no longer the nominee.
Biden at first remained defiant, including in high-profile interviews and press conferences where he defended his record and said only “the Lord Almighty” would convince him to drop his re-election bid. The campaign also insisted Biden was not leaving, including just hours before Biden issued his letter saying otherwise.
Jean-Pierre, in her first briefing with reporters since last week, declined to answer many questions about what led to Biden’s decision, saying she did not want to get ahead of his remarks.
She said the president met with “a small group of advisors” and his family on Saturday evening to weigh how to move forward, and let his staff know he was dropping out of the race moments before his written announcement Sunday afternoon.
She also pushed back on suggestions Biden’s health led to his decision, and that it would inhibit his ability to serve the last six months of his term or even another four years.
“I think it speaks to how honourable this president is, how selfless this president is, that he was able to make this decision and say, ‘This is not about me, this is about the American people, this is about the country,’” she said. “I think that speaks for itself.”
Jean-Pierre also wouldn’t say if Harris would be more closely involved in the day-to-day business of running the country as she seeks to take over from Biden in the event she wins in November.
“The president and the vice-president speak regularly, they see each other regularly,” she said.
“The president is committed to being president and leading this country forward, in the way that he believes Americans want to see this country moving forward. And the vice-president is going to continue to be a critical partner. Nothing’s going to change in that.”
Biden’s decision to end his candidacy also buoyed the spirits of congressional Democrats who had been fretting that the incumbent president would drag down their prospects of retaining the Senate and retaking the House of Representatives.
Republicans, who currently control the House by a razor-thin majority, have already sought to undo some of the legislative achievements of the Biden administration — signaling they would further threaten Biden’s legacy with full control of Congress and the White House.
—With files from the Associated Press
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