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Joe Biden will say the “best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation” in the US president’s first public remarks since he announced he would not seek a second term in office.
In a speech to the nation on Wednesday evening, Biden will say: “The defence of democracy is more important than any title. I draw strength, and find joy, in working for the American people,” according to prepared remarks shared by the White House.
“But this sacred task of perfecting our union is not about me,” the president will add. “It’s about you.”
The rare public address from the Oval Office, coming with just over 100 days to go until November’s presidential election, will be Biden’s first appearance since he announced at the weekend that he was suspending his re-election campaign and endorsing vice-president Kamala Harris to run in his place.
Biden has avoided the public eye since he was diagnosed last week with Covid-19 and went to recover at his Delaware holiday home. He returned to the White House on Tuesday but held no public events until his address.
The president will make clear that while he was not seeking re-election, he intended to serve out the remainder of his term.
“Over the next six months I will be focused on doing my job as president,” Biden will say. “That means I will continue to lower costs for hard-working families and grow our economy. I will keep defending our personal freedoms and our civil rights — from the right to vote — to the right to choose.”
“The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule. The people do,” he will add. “History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America — lies in your hands.”
Biden will face several foreign policy challenges in his final months in office.
He is set to hold a high-stakes meeting at the White House on Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Biden administration is pressing to get a Gaza ceasefire deal over the line in what would be a significant foreign policy achievement that would burnish the president’s legacy.
Biden’s decision not to run for re-election marks the beginning of the end of a storied career in Washington that has spanned more than half a century. First elected to the US Senate in 1972, he spent more than three decades in the upper chamber of Congress before serving two terms as Barack Obama’s vice-president, from 2009 to 2017.
Biden’s departure from the presidential race means Harris is set to face off against Donald Trump at the ballot box. National opinion polls suggest a tight race, with Trump having a slight edge with just over three months to go until election day.
Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz and Steff Chávez in Washington
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