New Delhi: Fifty-two years after he was first elected to the Senate, US President Joe Biden took his final bow at the Democratic National Conference (DNC) Monday amid a four-minute applause, and chants of “We love Biden” and “Thank you, Biden”.
In his speech on the first day of the DNC, Biden, 81, reflected on his five decades in politics and pledged his confidence to the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign. “I promise to be the best volunteer Harris and Walz have ever seen,” he said, highlighting the achievements of the Biden-Harris administration – “millions of jobs created, the smallest racial wealth gap in 20 years, 800,000 new manufacturing jobs, and record health insurance coverage”.
“For 50 years like many of you, I gave my heart and soul to this nation,” Biden said while addressing the convention in Chicago. “I made a lot of mistakes in my career,” he said, “But I gave my best to you.”
Biden’s team also posted a video on X, taking the audience through his years in politics.
I love you, America. pic.twitter.com/9m8WPGVkxz
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 20, 2024
He repeated the same words he had uttered when he dropped out of the presidential race last month, saying, “It’s been an honour to serve as your president. I love the job. But I love my country more.”
He reaffirmed his faith in Kamala Harris, saying choosing her as vice president was the best decision he ever made. “Because like many of our best presidents, she was also a vice president,” he said, adding that “she is tough, experienced, and she has enormous integrity”.
Citing the January 2021 insurrection when supporters of former president Donald Trump overran Capitol Hill, Biden condemned “neo-Nazis” and “white supremacists” who, he said, were so emboldened that they “didn’t even bother to wear their hoods”. Trump had called into question the presidential elections he lost two months before the insurrection.
During his address, Biden blamed Trump and Republicans for “stirring up the oldest divisions, stoking the oldest fears,” and declared that “political violence and hate have no safe harbour in America”.
“On that day, we almost lost everything about who we are as a country, and that threat, this is not hyperbole, that threat is still very much alive. Donald Trump says he will refuse to accept the election results if he loses again,” Biden said.
“Donald Trump did not build a damn thing,” Biden said, vowing that Harris and running mate Minnesota Governor Walz would safeguard civil rights, electoral rights, and abortion rights. “Donald Trump is going to find out the power of women in 2024.”
Also read: Biden’s withdrawal rare but not unprecedented. Seven other US presidents have dropped out before
Clinton gathers support for Harris
Hillary Clinton, the first woman ever to clinch a major party nomination for president, walked onto the stage to the song “Brave” by Sara Bareilles. The 2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee lauded Biden for bringing “dignity, decency, and confidence back to the White House”. She talked about how each generation of women had taken the torch forward, from Shirley Chisholm, the first woman of colour elected to the US Congress, to Kamala Harris.
The former secretary of state commended Harris for being close to breaking the glass ceiling, and said the Democratic Party nominee had the “character, experience and vision to lead us forward”. “When a barrier falls for one of us, it breaks for all of us,” she added, urging the party to throw its support behind Harris’s campaign and ensure her victory in the November presidential elections.
“It takes a village to raise a family, heal a country, and to win a campaign,” Clinton added. “Something is happening in America, we can all feel it,” she said.
Clinton added, “Families building better lives, parents stretching to afford child care, young people struggling to pay the rent. They’re all asking us to keep going.”
Harris “will restore abortion rights,” Clinton said, adding that she would also fight for hardworking families, and open the door wide to good-paying jobs. She spoke of Harris’s role as prosecutor and her perseverance. “Kamala Harris (is) for the people,” Clinton said, adding Trump “only cares about himself”.
Being held a month after the 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, the DNC will conclude on 22 August.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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