President Joe Biden wiped away tears as he stepped out onto the Democratic National Convention stage on Monday night. His daughter Ashley had just given him a tremendous introduction, following on the heels of her mother, first lady Jill Biden, who had herself followed a line of speakers who thanked Biden for his leadership and strength. Monday night was all about giving Biden his flowers, with signs reading “We ❤️ Joe” waving in the crowd as he composed himself to deliver his speech.
The president was in the pocket for this speech, fired up in a way he hadn’t been in months
The night’s program ran long, so Biden didn’t take the stage until more than a half-hour after he was scheduled to. But he was also early, as he had originally expected to address the crowd in Chicago on Thursday night as the party’s 2024 nominee. But there was no sign of the reported anger or bitterness that Biden felt over this decision to step aside and endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris, as his successor in the White House. Instead, the president was in the pocket for this speech, fired up in a way he hadn’t been in months, blowing the doors off his State of the Union address this year.
This was Biden in his element, unleashed and ready both to brag a little about his accomplishments and channel righteous anger at the ways former President Donald Trump and his movement have hurt, and will hurt, the country. Recounting why he decided to run in 2020, he once again told the story of seeing the white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, the night before 2017’s “Unite the Right” rally. “They didn’t even bother to wear their hoods," Biden said. “Hate was on the march in America. Old ghosts, in new garments.”
He looked back at the successes of his administration, the legislation that’s been passed, how far we’ve come since the depths of the pandemic when he was first elected. It’s a laundry list of accomplishments that Biden had expected to run on himself. Instead, it will be the foundation of Harris’ campaign, as she calls for continuing — and expanding upon — the work of the last four years.
This was a moment of passing the torch with grace and care in a way that few leaders would have managed when faced with such a decision
But Democrats made sure to give credit where credit is due, with most speakers taking time to shout out Biden’s wins. “Thank you, Joe” rang out from the crowd again and again, including as he spoke. “Thank you, Kamala, too,” Biden told them in response. It was a reverse call-and-response that played out again later into his address, highlighting how Biden has once more embraced this familiar role: acting as a booster and supporter for the person at the top of the ticket.
This wasn’t where Biden expected to be two months ago, but he left no doubts that he is all in for his successor and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. “I love this job, but I love my country more,” Biden told the crowd, vowing to “be the best volunteer Harris and Walz’s camp have ever seen.”
As he worked his way to a close — having surpassed the length of his acceptance speeches in 2008, 2012 and 2020 — he reached back to the early days of his career. “I’m more optimistic about the future now than I was when I was elected a 29-year-old senator,” he told the crowd. He smiled and promised that he meant it; I’m willing to believe it.
As Biden concluded, surrounded by family and joined by Harris and her husband, it left me with a feeling that I’d just watched a page turn in America’s history. This was a moment of passing the torch with grace and care in a way that few leaders would have managed when faced with such a decision. What Biden pulled off on Monday night was in its own way as presidential as any official act he’d taken while, as he put it, a kid with a stutter who grew up to sit behind the Resolute Desk.
