Biden to Deliver Political Swan Song

President Joe Biden will make a primetime speech Monday at the Democratic convention in Chicago, it just won’t be the final-night headliner address he’s hoped to make since his first White House run nearly four decades ago.
Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 race ensured that he won’t accept the party’s presidential nomination before thousands of sign-waving supporters — something he also wasn’t able to do because of the pandemic at the mostly virtual Democratic convention in 2020.
Now Biden will take the stage Monday with an opportunity to burnish his legacy at what might be the final major political speech of his 50-year career in Washington.
“It may be a personal goal [of Biden’s] that isn’t fulfilled,” Basil Smikle, a Democratic strategist, said of giving a nomination acceptance speech to a packed arena of the party’s faithful. But Biden can still make history by participating in “one of the most important presidential passings of the baton in recent history.”
At the DNC, Biden will have to strike a delicate balance between touting his record in office and urging voters to back Vice President Kamala Harris in her race against former President Donald Trump.
Democrats are devoting the first night of the convention to a celebration of Biden’s decades-long career in public service and accomplishments as president.
The DNC’s decision to have former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama speak later in the week means Biden won’t have to compete with them for attention. Biden will share the speaking program Monday with Hillary Clinton, the party’s 2016 presidential nominee, but as the keynote speaker his address will be the main event of the night.
With millions of television viewers expected to tune in, it’ll be Biden’s largest audience since his June debate against Trump.
Biden’s disastrous debate performance raised fresh questions about his age and acuity and ultimately led the 81-year-old president to drop out of the race, paving the way for Harris to take over as the Democratic presidential nominee.
As president, Biden will have other opportunities to address the nation before the end of his term in January. Biden is expected to campaign for Harris this fall, and as a former president he may well speak at future Democratic conventions.
But former Biden advisers and other Democrats said Monday’s convention speech amounts to a political swan song for the president, since it’s unlikely he’ll speak before such a large in-person and T.V. audience again before leaving office. The event will cap a political career that started with his election to the U.S. Senate in 1972 and included two runs for president in 1988 and 2008 before he won the race for the White House on his third try in 2020.
“I think he’s accepted this reality,” said Moe Vela, a former senior Biden adviser. In recent public appearances, Biden looks like “he’s at peace. He doesn’t look angry.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week ahead of the speech that Biden looked forward to “having his moment” at the convention.
“He’s looking forward to it,” Jean-Pierre said. She added that Biden would outline the stakes of the election while also addressing his record as president.
Biden worked on his speech over the weekend at Camp David. When asked by reporters Friday what his message would be, Biden said: “Win.”
The setting for this year’s DNC will be far different from 2020. That year Biden accepted the Democratic presidential nomination with a speech in a mostly empty hall in Delaware before a small group of campaign aides and reporters.
Biden’s speech was one of the only live events at the convention, as the DNC chose not to hold a large in-person gathering because of the pandemic. Republicans also didn’t stage a traditional convention in 2020, though Trump gave his acceptance speech on the South Lawn of the White House in front of a large crowd of supporters.
Like other Democrats, Biden hasn’t spoken at a regular convention since 2016, when he gave an address as the outgoing vice president. Biden also spoke at the 2012 Democratic convention as the sitting vice president, and at the 2008 convention as Obama’s running mate.
Until two months ago, Biden planned to deliver the final address of the 2024 convention. Instead he’ll kick the festivities off before passing the baton to Harris and the rest of the party.
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