Joe Biden says he is ‘passing the torch’ to save US democracy

Unlock the US Election Countdown newsletter for free

The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House

Joe Biden cast his decision to “pass the torch to a new generation” as a bid to save US democracy in the president’s first public remarks since he announced he would not seek a second term.

In a speech to the nation on Wednesday night, Biden vowed to spend his remaining six months in the White House pressing ahead with his domestic and foreign policy agenda, as well as calling for significant reforms to the US Supreme Court.

But he also gave a robust defence of his record and his decision to suspend his re-election campaign, saying: “I revere this office, but I love my country more.”

“It has been the honour of my life to serve as your president, but in the defence of democracy, which is at stake, I think it is more important than any title,” Biden added. “Nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.”

The rare public address from the Oval Office, coming with just over 100 days to go until November’s presidential election, was 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’s decision came after more than three weeks of panic and infighting among Democrats over whether the 81-year-old president was mentally or physically fit to serve another four years in office.

“There is a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices, yes, younger voices,” he said on Wednesday. “That time and place is now.”

Biden thanked Harris for serving as his vice-president, and praised her as an “experienced, tough [and] capable” leader, adding: “Now the choice is up to you, the American people.”

Biden’s departure from the presidential race means Harris is set to face Donald Trump at the ballot box in November. National opinion polls suggest a tight race, with Trump having a slight edge.

Biden did not mention Trump by name on Wednesday night, but warned that democracy was “at stake” in this year’s election.

“I believe America is at an inflection point, one of those rare moments in history when the decisions we make now determine the fate of our nation and the world for decades to come,” he said. “America is going to have to choose between moving forward or backward, between home and hate, between unity and division.”

Biden had 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 made clear on Wednesday that he intended to serve out the remainder of his term. He said he would spend the six months to January’s inauguration of his successor “focused on doing my job as president”.

Biden also confirmed publicly for the first time that he would call for sweeping reforms to the Supreme Court, a move he described as “critical to our democracy”. The president did not detail his reform plans, which could range from new legislation to a constitutional amendment, both of which would be exceedingly difficult to achieve with a sharply divided Congress.

He added that he would “keep working to ensure America remained strong, secure and the leader of the free world”. But the president will nevertheless continue to confront several foreign policy challenges in his final months in office.

Biden is set to hold a high-stakes meeting at the White House on Thursday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The US 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.

“It has been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years,” Biden said on Wednesday. “Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter, from modest beginnings of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk.”

Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz and Steff Chávez in Washington