President Biden is scheduled to deliver a prime-time farewell address to the nation on Wednesday, ending a 50-year career in politics just days before his long-admired and reluctant departure from office. be.
The White House has not said what Biden plans to say in his speech, scheduled for 8 p.m. ET. But in his final months, he strengthened American leadership abroad while stabilizing domestic politics, guiding the country through the pandemic, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy, and innovating to strengthen the nation. He is seeking to solidify his legacy as president. Democratic institutions both domestically and globally.
In a letter released early Wednesday ahead of his speech, Biden said the country is “stronger, richer and safer” than it was four years ago.
“It has been the privilege of my life to serve this country for more than 50 years,” Biden wrote. “Nowhere on earth would a stuttering child born in humble beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the resolute desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States. I have given my heart and soul to this country, and I have been blessed millions of times with the love and support of the American people.”
“History is in your hands,” he added.
Whatever image the president is trying to project Wednesday evening, it comes against the backdrop of a highly unpopular president leaving office and handing over the reins to his successor, Donald J. Trump. There is. Trump has repeatedly said he despises Trump and is unfit to hold power. .
Even the address’s location, from behind a resolute desk in the Oval Office, is a reminder that Biden is not starting out the way he had hoped. His final prime-time speech there lasted 11 minutes in July to explain why he withdrew from the presidential race under pressure from his party amid mounting questions about his age and suitability for another term. It was well spent.
The president has struggled to maintain attention since Mr. Biden withdrew from the race, especially since Mr. Trump’s election victory in November.
“Farewell addresses are challenging because they aim to mark the culmination of one era at a time when much of the country is already moving on to the next,” he wrote in his book The White House. said Robert Schlesinger, author of Ghosts: The President and His Men. Speech writer. ”
The farewell address, a tradition dating back to George Washington, is one of a series of speeches Biden is giving in his final days in office. He has in turn highlighted domestic achievements such as its “historic” conservation record. In a speech focused on foreign policy at the State Department on Monday, Biden said he has strengthened America’s position as a world leader and placed it in a stronger position vis-à-vis its allies and adversaries than it was four years ago. . He is expected to give at least two more speeches this week, in which he will continue to build on his case that he has made a generational step forward as a one-term president.
And in his statements as recently as last week, he remained defiant when it came to the presidential race, saying he believed he could beat Trump and that his decision to withdraw was motivated by a desire to unify the Democratic Party. He said that
“I think I could have beaten Trump, I think I could have beaten Trump, Kamala could have beaten Trump,” Biden said, adding, “I thought it was important to unite the party. I thought I could win again, but I thought it would be better to unify the party.”
Biden told donors he plans to stay involved with the party after leaving office. Asked last week what role he planned to play after taking office, he said: “I’m not going to disappear out of sight or out of consciousness.”
In their farewell addresses, past presidents have reflected on their accomplishments and warned of the challenges ahead.
In 2001, President Bill Clinton, in his farewell speech, warned his successor not to undermine the country’s economic prosperity and global presence. In 2009, President George W. Bush gave a solemn speech in which he acknowledged that there had been “setbacks” during his eight years in office, but assured the American people that he had done what he thought was right. He said he would like to do so. Before handing over power to Trump in 2017, President Barack Obama warned that economic inequality, racism and closed-mindedness threatened democracy and unity.
Trump, politically isolated and facing impeachment after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters, will be seen taking off from the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in his 2021 farewell speech. He told the assembled supporters. : “Goodbye. We love you. We’ll be back somehow.”
Historians said Mr. Biden’s speech could be reminiscent of that of Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose resignation is considered the most memorable since George Washington, and Mr. Biden’s This was done after half a century of public service, just like Mr.
Mr. Eisenhower’s biographer William Hitchcock predicted that Mr. Biden would covertly refer to the dangers to democracy and the “spirit of service,” drawing a contrast from Mr. Trump, if not explicitly. He said he is doing so.
“For someone so dedicated to his public life, it makes sense that he would say a personal farewell. He literally gave his life, and indeed the lives of his family, to this country,” Hitchcock said. “And I think projecting sacrifice and service is something he’s comfortable doing. The contrast with his successor will be clear to his listeners. It’s not something he has to do. do not have.”
Both Mr. Biden and Mr. Eisenhower resigned after their hand-picked successor, the vice president, lost the election. But Eisenhower, the oldest president at the time, thought little of his younger successor, John F. Kennedy, but did not explicitly criticize him.
But the gravity of this moment will become clear, he said.
Hitchcock added: “Just like with Eisenhower, this is a bitter transition.”
