President Biden delivered an approximately 11-minute address to the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday.
While sitting behind the Resolute Desk, surrounded by portraits of American presidents, Biden spoke of his decision to discontinue his re-election campaign and laid out his plan for the remainder of his term.
The 81-year-old president, after recovering from a reported COVID-19 case last week, also spoke repeatedly about “defending democracy.”
Here are five key takeaways from the address that comes at a pivotal moment of the election cycle as Vice President Harris, with Biden’s endorsement, vies to become the Democratic nominee for president.
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1. Biden offers an explanation about deciding to step aside from the race
The president said that when he was elected to office, he promised to “always level with you, to tell you the truth.”
That truth, Biden said, is that the “sacred cause of this country is larger than any one of us,” and those dedicated to the “cause of American democracy must unite to protect it.”
“In recent weeks, it’s become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believed my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy,” Biden said. “That includes personal ambition. So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation. You know, there is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life. There’s also a time and place for new voices. Fresh voices. Yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.”
2. Biden vows to reform the Supreme Court
The president laid out his plan for the remaining six months of his first term.
“I’m going to call for Supreme Court reform because this is critical to our democracy, Supreme Court reform,” Biden said, without elaborating.
He also vowed to “continue to lower costs for hard-working families,” grow the economy, defend personal freedoms and civil rights “from the right to vote to the right to choose.” The president said he would continue work on the “cancer moonshot,” which was part of his 2020 campaign promise to end cancer as we know it and mobilize the federal government to speed progress in cancer research.
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3. Biden condemns political violence, without directly addressing the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
“I’ll keep calling out hate and extremism. Make it clear [that] there is no place, no place in America for political violence or any violence that ever. Period,” Biden said, while listing priorities for the rest of his term.
Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, sending a unifying shock wave throughout the Republican Party, which formally named him their nominee the following week.
4. Biden references “kings and dictators” when reiterating his support for Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee
“I’d like to thank our great Vice President, Kamala Harris. She’s experienced. She’s tough. She’s capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country. Now the choice is up to you, the American people. When you make that choice, remember the words of Benjamin Franklin’s hanging on my wall here in the Oval Office, alongside the busts of Doctor King and Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez,” Biden said.
The president recalled how, when Franklin emerged from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, he was asked whether the country would be a monarchy or a republic.
Franklin famously was quoted as responding, “a republic, if you can keep it.”
Biden also touted his more than 50 years of service to the nation.
“The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule. The people do,” he said. Biden has previously accused Trump of wanting to be a dictator.
Biden noted the country emerged from the “worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, [and] the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
5. Biden boasts that he is the first U.S. president of this century without Americans at war anywhere in the world
“I will keep working to ensure America remains strong, secure in the leader of the free world. I’m the first president of this century to report to the American people that the United States is not a war anywhere in the world,” Biden said. The claim comes as the Biden administration received heavy criticism over its botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
During his debate against Trump last month, Biden made the stunning omission of the 13 U.S. service members killed at Abbey Gate when claiming no U.S. troops were killed while he was in office.
Biden in his Oval Office address also vowed to “keep rallying a coalition of proud nations” to prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from taking over Ukraine, promised to make NATO “more powerful and more united than any time in all of our history” and said he would support allies in the Pacific, claiming that it is no longer “conventional wisdom” that China would surpass the United States.
Regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict, Biden vowed to “end the war in Gaza, bring home all the hostages to bring peace and security to the Middle East.”
