President Joe Biden said Wednesday night that he reveres the presidency, “but I love my country more.”
“It’s been the honor of my life to serve as your president, but in defense of democracy, which is at stake, I think it’s more important than any title,” Biden said in a televised address from the Oval Office.
To “save democracy,” Biden said, he is “passing the torch.”
“My fellow Americans, it’s been the privilege of my life to serve this country over 50 years,” said Biden, who was first elected to the Senate in 1972 and served as Barack Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017.
Biden promoted his record in the speech, which lasted about 10 minutes, and said he would push “Supreme Court reform” during the remaining six months of his presidency.
“I’m going to call for Supreme Court reform because this is critical to our democracy,” the president said, without specifying what he meant.
Reports last week said Biden would push term limits for Supreme Court justices. He has previously resisted efforts in his party to “pack” the high court by adding justices to the current nine to achieve favorable outcomes for liberals.
Biden first announced Sunday in a social media post (itself in the form of a letter) that he was dropping his re-election bid before the Democratic National Convention, which convenes Aug. 19.
Biden also announced Sunday that he is supporting Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee.
However, Biden didn’t specify either Sunday or Wednesday night why he is stepping aside, despite widespread concerns about his declining mental acuity.
Her critics inside and outside the party have noted that Harris dropped out of the 2020 Democratic primaries before a single state voted, so low was she in the polls. Biden picked the California senator and former state attorney general as his running mate even though she essentially called him a racist during a debate.
“I’d like to thank our great Vice President Kamala Harris,” Biden said Wednesday night. “She’s experienced, she’s tough, she’s capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country.”
This year, Biden went through a primary process limited by the Democratic Party. He won over 90% of the delegates, defeating Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn. He lost only the contest in America Samoa.
Yet, despite his repeated calls to “save democracy” from the threat of former President Donald Trump, now the Republican nominee, Biden is endorsing Harris for the party’s nomination after she won no primary votes.
The Associated Press has reported that, by its count, Harris already has enough convention delegates to win Democrats’ nomination.
Earlier Wednesday, Harris didn’t attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint meeting of Congress, citing a prior engagement in Indianapolis.
The president, who will turn 82 just two weeks after Election Day on Nov. 5, also sought to reassure the public that he plans to finish his four-year term.
“Over the next six months, I’ll be focused on doing my job as president,” Biden said during the prime-time Oval Office address. “That means I’ll continue lowering costs for hardworking families, grow our economy. I’ll keep defending our personal freedoms and our civil rights, from the right to vote to the right to choose.”
This last point was a reference to abortion on demand, which the Supreme Court ended in 2022 with its Dobbs ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
Democrats could face a predicament in replacing Biden on the ballot in several states because a patchwork of state laws determines what a political party must do to substitute someone else as its presidential nominee.
Battleground states such as Georgia and Nevada have procedures under which a presidential candidate may withdraw from the ballot. Wisconsin allows it to occur only in case of death.
The Biden-Harris campaign began to unravel after the president’s poor debate performance against his opponent, Trump, whom he defeated in 2020. Gradually, more Democrats went public in calling for Biden to drop out because of declining mental faculties.
Biden was initially defiant and vowed to remain in the race. But that changed after he canceled campaign stops in Nevada on July 17 after testing positive again for COVID-19 and traveling to his vacation residence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he stayed out of public view.
Earlier this year, special counsel Robert Hur issued a report on Biden’s possession of classified documents from his years as vice president and senator, characterizing him as “elderly” and “struggling” with memory loss.
It made no sense to bring the case to a jury, Hur concluded.
“The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule, the people do,” Biden told Americans.
Ken McIntyre contributed to this report, which was updated during the night to add more details.
