Joe Biden talks about why he dropped out of the 2024 election. Biden also says he’s not mad at Nancy Pelosi and no one influenced his decision to drop out of the election.
President Joe Biden briefly gaggled with reporters before taking off from Chicago on Air Force One.
He said he hasn’t spoken to Nancy Pelosi, but that no one “influenced” his decision to drop out of the race.
“What I decided to do was, I didn’t want to — the extent that the party felt they’d lose Senate seats and House seats, that would’ve been the topic you had to cover the entire campaign. That wasn’t worth it,” he said.
Biden, asked if he believes he could’ve won in November, said yes, while acknowledging that it was a tight race. But he said it wasn’t worth dividing his party, which he said only played into Trump’s hand.
“You always think you could’ve won. If you go back and look at the numbers, we weren’t that far behind,” he said. “But it would’ve been close.”
He called the reception at the DNC “overwhelming,” and said the highlight of his night was the speech from his daughter, Ashley Biden, introducing him.
From the coconut-themed pins spotted throughout the city, to the visible relief about the trajectory of the race displayed on Democrats’ faces as they sipped beers and munched on hot dogs at the United Center, the first day of the Democratic convention was dripping with enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris.
But the night was really all about President Joe Biden, the man who a month ago was expected to be the one arriving in Chicago to accept the party’s presidential nomination. In the DNC’s press memo about the Monday night programming, they didn’t shy away from that fact, writing that the country would hear from “those who know President Biden’s dedication to America best.”
The night could simply be described as a Biden love fest.
During his speech, United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain thanked Biden for walking the picket line with them last year. Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock ticked through Biden’s accomplishments. Delaware Sen. Chris Coons led the crowd in a “We love Joe!” chant. One delegate was spotted walking around the United Center with a homemade “Thank you Joe Biden” sign pinned to his blazer.
As Biden took the stage, TV cameras took close-up shots of delegates crying while waving “We Love Joe” signs. Biden paused, taking in what is perhaps his last major political speech, before diving into his warnings about threats to democracy.
Making sure that the convention appropriately honored Biden was important to DNC organizers. And putting the president on the first night allowed the party to indulge in a sappy, heartfelt Biden send-off while also ensuring that the remaining three days could be squarely focused on the vice president and her vision for the country.
Dedicating this much time to someone who is not the candidate is unusual for a nomination convention, a dynamic Biden appeared to recognize. As the crowd showered him with cheers, he at times tried to bring the focus back to Harris.
“When I say ‘we,’ I mean Kamala and me,” Biden said, as he touted his legislative achievements. On more than one occasion, he responded to “Thank you Joe” chants by telling the crowd, “Thank you Kamala, too.”
Official business at the United Center has concluded for the evening. But the Biden celebration is far from over. Hundreds of current and former staffers are heading to The Old Post Office for a team Biden party, a moment to blow off some steam after a whirlwind summer and celebrate the president’s legacy. Some Biden staffers told us they were flying into Chicago just to attend the Monday festivities.
As for us? It’s past our bedtime. We’ll catch y’all back here in the morning.
Biden, in his last major speech before the election, makes a forceful case against Trump
Audience members were moved to tears as the president spoke, delivering a historical speech to mark the passing of the torch to his vice president.
President Joe Biden delivered a forceful and emotional speech to close out night one of the Democratic National Convention. Whatever anger he might have had toward fellow Democrats, he channeled all of it toward Donald Trump.
He pointed to some of the darkest moments in Trump’s presidency, back to seven years ago, when white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville. But it was Trump’s response — equivocating about white supremacists — that seemed to roil Biden the most. Biden has recounted time and time again as the moment that moved him to run for the White House. The president said it was a “battle for the soul of the nation,” and that the country must vote for Vice President Kamala Harris to preserve democracy.
“I stand before you now on this August night to report that democracy has prevailed. Democracy has delivered. And now democracy must be preserved,” he said on Monday as the hour approached midnight.
The night kicked off a convention much different than the one Biden envisioned just a month ago. Audience members were moved to tears as the president spoke, delivering a historical speech to mark the passing of the torch to his vice president.
But Biden said he wasn’t angry at those who pushed him to step aside.
“I love the job, but I love my country more,” Biden said. “All this talk about how I’m angry at all those people who said I should step down. That’s not true.”
He used his speech to run through a long list of his accomplishments, from leading the country out of a pandemic to legislative victories from infrastructure to gun safety legislation. He talked about taking actions to combat climate change and strengthen border security, as well as nominating the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. He made sure to count his selection of Harris as his VP as one of his proudest achievements.
“Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made when I became the nominee, and it was the best decision I made my whole career,” he said, the crowd again erupting into “thank you, Joe” chants.
He responded, “Thank you, Kamala.” He said Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, would carry forward the progress of his first term.
“Join me in promising your whole heart to this effort,” he said.
The president ended his speech by quoting a verse from “American Anthem.”
“Let me know in my heart. When my days are through. America, America, I gave my best to you,” Biden said, pumping his fist in the air.
“I made a lot of mistakes in career,” he continued. “But I gave my best to you.”
Democrats blame ‘raucous applause’ for massive delays to convention programming
A 30-minute lag that lasted throughout much of the night left two speakers and one performer on the cutting room floor of the first night of the convention.
It’s something in the way they cheered. Or at least that’s how Democratic convention officials spun it.
Democrats pushed President Joe Biden out of primetime on Monday — just a few weeks after driving him out of the race altogether.
A 30-minute lag that lasted throughout much of the night left Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, herself a former DNC chair, and Grace Meng on the cutting room floor of the first night of the convention. Not to mention musical guest James Taylor, who famously sang the 1968 hit “Something In The Way She Moves.”
But it also pushed the incumbent president well out of primetime on the East Coast, including in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and North Carolina, on a night that was supposed to be all about thanking him.
“We have an embarrassment of riches and anyone interested easily switched over to cable,” said Caitlin Legacki, a Democratic strategist and former Biden administration official. “Not as clean, but definitely not a catastrophe. Also the reality is that a ton of people will watch the highlights tomorrow.”
Mandela Barnes, Wisconsin’s former lieutenant governor, was surprised to learn that some speakers got the axe tonight due to the program running too long. “It’s hard to believe that some people got cut, because that thing went on forever,” he said.
“I know how it can feel if a person was supposed to take quite possibly the biggest stage of their lives and have the moment interrupted because the program went long.” But, Barnes said, “You gotta come to expect that kind of thing,” recalling when his home state’s convention in 2020 got blown up due to Covid-19. “Our whole convention got cancelled!”
Asked for comment, the convention officials said in a statement: “Because of the raucous applause interrupting speaker after speaker, we ultimately skipped elements of our program to ensure we could get to President Biden as quickly as possible so that he could speak directly to the American people. We are proud of the electric atmosphere in our convention hall and proud that our convention is showcasing the broad and diverse coalition behind the Harris-Walz ticket throughout the week on and off the stage.”
Biden finished speaking at around 12:20 a.m. ET.
Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.
