CHICAGO — President Biden gave a forceful call for Democrats to elect Vice President Kamala Harris to the White House during his Monday night address to the convention, an event that just weeks ago seemed sure to coronate him as his party’s nominee.
Biden spoke last on a night filled with several of the party’s rising stars, and his address did not begin until 11:30 p.m. on the East Coast.
The speech from Biden offered a spirited celebration of what the president sees as his big achievements, plus several attacks on the GOP presidential nominee, former President Trump, who Biden labeled a “loser.”
“Are you ready to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz?” Biden said to kick off his remarks.
“Above all, we need you to beat Donald Trump and elect Kamala and Tim president and vice president of the United States of America,” he later said.
But it was surely a bittersweet night for Biden, who was pushed out of the race by his own party just a month ago. Since then, he’s seen Harris rapidly energize the party and close a polling gap with Trump, suggesting those pushing for a change were right to do so.
The president closed his remarks with a quote: “America, I gave my best to you.”
“I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you,” he added.
Harris looked on during his remarks and then joined Biden on stage after, embracing the president with a hug beside first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff. Biden’s children, Ashley and Hunter Biden, along with their families, then joined the stage, and the president exited holding hands with his grandson and Hunter Biden’s son, Beau.
“Because of you, we’ve had one of the most extraordinary four years of progress ever.” Biden said during his remarks. “When I say we, I mean Kamala and me.”
He promised to be “the best volunteer” for the Harris campaign. And he hailed Harris’s economic agenda in his first public endorsements of the proposals she introduced last week.
He noted parts of the plan, which includes a plan to end the housing shortage through the construction of new units and down-payment support to first-time homebuyers, and a plan to expand the child tax credit.
“Like many of our best presidents, she’s also vice president,” Biden said, referring to his own history as vice president to former President Obama.
“She’ll be a president our children can look up to. She’ll be a president respected by world leaders because she already is. She’ll be a president we can all be proud of and she’ll be a historic president who puts her stamp on America’s future,” he added.
He referred to her as “Vice-President-soon-to-be-President Kamala Harris,” while noting that she cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, legislation that he hails for beating big Pharma.
The crowd began chants of “thank you Joe” which continued on and off throughout his speech as delegates held up “we heart Joe” signs.
“Thank you, Kamala, too!” Biden said.
He later said that Harris “soon will serve as the 47th president of the United States.”
He continued to bash Trump, mentioning his legal troubles after the former Biden campaign had called Trump multiple times a convicted felon to bash him.
“Crime will keep going down, when we put a prosecutor in the Oval Office instead of a convicted felon,” Biden said, referring to Trump.
The president argued that Trump is a liar and said that he will find out the “power of women in 2024” after Democrats enjoyed better-than-expected results in the 2022 midterms just s after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“I never thought I’d stand in front of a crowd of Democrats and call a president a liar so many times. No, I’m not trying to be funny, it’s sad. Trump continues to lie about the border,” Biden said, adding that “Trump killed” a border deal negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators.
Additionally, he argued that Trump “doesn’t respect our veterans” and said that Harris will never “bow down to dictators” like Trump does. He continued that “Ukraine is still free” years after the Russian invasion to rousing cheers from the crowd.
The president called for an end to the war in the Gaza and for both sides to accept the pending cease-fire deal. Pro-Palestinian protests are taking place in Chicago during the convention, demonstrating the Biden-Harris administration’s pro-Israel stance.
“Those folks I see out in the street, they have a point,” Biden said, referring to the protesters. “A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides.”
“Folks, I’ve got five months left of my presidency. I got a lot to do. I intend to get it done. Its been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your president. I love the job but I love my country more,” he added.
The president was teary-eyed when he took the stage after being introduced by his daughter, Ashley Biden. He shared a long hug with her before taking the podium and wiped his eye with a tissue.
He opened his remarks with an image of his inauguration in Jan. 2021, condemning the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
“My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, nearly four years ago in winter on the steps of the Capitol on a cold January day, I raised my right hand and a wore an oath to you and to God,” he said, adding to the city was “surrounded by the national guard” after Jan. 6 was just two weeks before.
“You cannot say you love your country only when you win.”
“Democracy has prevailed, Democracy has delivered and not Democracy must be preserved,” Biden said forcefully, pointing his finger at the crowd.
“We came together in 2020 to save democracy. As your president, I’ve been determine to keep America moving forward, not going back,” Biden added, invoking the Harris campaign slogan “we’re not going back.”