President Joe Biden bid farewell to politics Monday in an emotional and lengthy speech to the Democrats who pushed him off the 2024 ticket, acknowledging his age was the driving factor.
An overflowing audience on the first night of the Democratic National Committee chanted “We love Joe!” and held signs that read the same with heart emojis. Biden replied, “America, I love you.”
He arrived on the stage in tears after his daughter, Ashley, introduced him as “the OG girl dad.” He held his daughter, a criminal justice social worker in Philadelphia, in a long embrace. He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his eyes as attendees gave their loudest cheers of the night. Biden had to wait almost five minutes to begin in earnest.
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“Thank you, Joe!” the crowd roared. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he replied.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was instrumental in getting Biden to step aside, was captured in the “We love Joe!” chants.
After a detour through his signature policy accomplishments and his harshest criticisms of Donald Trump, Biden focused on his torchbearer, Kamala Harris.
“Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made when I became our nominee. And it was the best decision I made my whole career,” Biden said, promising to “be the best volunteer Harris and Walz’s camp have ever seen.”
Biden, the keynote speaker to close out the first day of the Democratic convention in Chicago, treated the audience as Americans of all political persuasions, using the opportunity as a moment of presidential privilege between bouts of anger and hints of resentment.
“I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you,” Biden, 81, said. “For fifty years, like many of you, I gave my heart and soul to our nation, and I’ve been blessed a million times in return with the support of the American people.”
He talked about how he started as “too young to be in the Senate” because he wasn’t yet 30, poignantly adding, “Yet, old to stay as president.”
The audience laughed, giving levity to the solemnity of the moment.
“I’ll give you my word as a Biden: I can honestly say I’m more optimistic about the future than I was when I was elected as a 29-year-old United States senator.”
Biden also thanked his wife Jill of nearly 50 years, whom he married after his first wife and young daughter were killed in a car crash. “She still leaves me both breathless and speechless,” Biden said. “Everybody knows I love her more than she loves me.”
“She walks down the stairs and I still get that going, boom boom boom boom,” he said, holding his hand to his heart.
