US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks next to US President Joe Biden during an event in Prince George’s County, Maryland, USA, on August 15, 2024.
Elisabeth Franz | Reuters
His decision could dramatically change President Joe Biden’s role at next week’s Democratic National Convention. give up running for a second termBut Biden aides said his message about the importance of this election will sound familiar.
The outgoing president is expected to use a keynote address on Monday to tout his accomplishments over the past four years and recommend Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.
But Biden also I still believe that Republican candidate Donald Trump poses a serious threat to American democracy. Aides said they called on Chicago delegates and voters across the country to do their part to defeat Trump again in November.
“After saving our democracy in 2020, President Biden is determined to defeat the threat to democracy posed by President Donald Trump,” one official said.
The first day of the party’s convention in Chicago will feature a series of tributes to Biden, who is ending a half-century in public office. Of course, just a few weeks ago, the entire convention was focused on making the case for another four years in office. But now, the convention will give the president another chance to shape his legacy.
The president will spend the weekend at Camp David fine-tuning the speech with the help of senior advisers, including chief speechwriter Mike Donilon and Vinay Reddy. Message delivered in the Oval Office Shortly after dropping out of the race, he made a strong case for Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
The speech was a reminder of the significance of Biden’s immediate endorsement of Harris after he announced he was withdrawing from the race, officials said. unite a party in crisis The story behind her historic candidacy is that despite Biden’s poor debate performance, and despite fighting hard to stay in the race, he Passing the Torch A Biden campaign official told NBC News they had reached out to her and Waltz.
“The president is pleased with the momentum of the campaign and looks forward to making his case,” the official said.
But Biden aides believe the convention will continue to highlight his and Harris’s accomplishments to contrast them with the Republican candidate, even after Biden is gone.
“Four years ago, America was reeling from a once-in-a-century pandemic, isolated on the world stage, crime was rising and the middle class was alienated,” the official said. “Today, America is an engine of global growth, our alliances are strong, violent crime rates are at a 50-year low, border crossings are lower than when the last administration left office and we are making progress on the issues that matter most to the American people.”
The Biden family, along with the President and First Lady, Who will speak? Biden’s longtime friends and supporters are scheduled to join him on a chartered plane from Delaware for the speech, and several aides have organized a reception for them and other current and former staffers in Chicago on Monday night.
Other elements of the convention intended to boost Biden’s candidacy will remain as tributes, including the convention logo, which borrows a design from the 2020 campaign. Additionally, all convention delegates will receive “Cup of Joe”-branded coffee, and signs will be installed around the United Center on Monday quoting lines from Biden’s Oval Office speech, including “History is in your hands,” as well as his family mantra of “Spread the faith.”
Biden will leave Chicago after Monday’s speech and spend the rest of the week in Southern California, where he is expected to meet with top advisers who have been working over the past month to solidify plans for the remainder of his term.
A Biden aide said the president “will have an extensive domestic schedule and will be traveling around the country repeatedly reminding Americans that they must choose between his vision for moving the country forward, not backward, and that of the vice president.”
“The president will fight to make every day of his term count to build on these historic accomplishments,” the official added. “Expect aggressive implementation of historic legislation, cost-saving measures, and a packed foreign policy agenda.”
