This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated August 2, 2024
After growing speculation about pressure for President Biden to withdraw from his reelection bid, on Sunday, July 21, while still in isolation due to his COVID diagnosis, he released a statement announcing that he would not seek a second term. Shortly after, he released another statement fully endorsing Vice-president Kamala Harris to replace him as the Democratic Party nominee for president in the 2024 election.
“My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made.”
President Joe Biden, Sunday, August 21, 2024
Over the following few days, endorsements from elected Democrats, former presidents, and other figures that could have possibly vied for the Democratic nomination all lined up behind Harris. State Democratic parties officially pledged their support to her campaign, both through endorsements and by pledging their delegates to her for the Democratic convention later in August.
In the 24 hours following the announcement, Harris set a one-day fundraising hall for a presidential candidate. She will be the Democratic nominee for president and her name will be on the ballot in all 50 states.
After Biden’s poor performance at the first presidential debate on June 27, there was concern on the left. Sure, media hysteria may have amplified talk about Biden’s age and ability to clearly convey his positions, but anyone who watched that debate could see that such concerns were not completely unfounded.
In this day and age, it is impossible to win a national election if a candidate can not clearly and effectively communicate their vision and positions. News reports that top Democratic leaders had begun to press Biden to step away from the race were clearly based on his path to victory seeming to close and, along with it, the potential for huge down-ballot losses for Democrats in congressional, state, and local races becoming more inevitable.
As he has done during his more than 50 years of public service as a federally elected leader in Washington, Biden put his country before himself. Currently the holder of the most important job in the world, with an opportunity to seek four more years in that role, he hung it up because having the best shot at winning this election and preventing a second Trump presidency is all that is important. The contrast with Trump, who is consumed by ego, is stark.
As Biden’s long career of public service comes to an end amid talk about his age, it provides an ironic bookend to how his five decades in Washington started. When he was elected to the United States Senate at the age of 29, there was also talk about his age, with concerns he was too young to be a senator.
The month after that election, just a week before Christmas, his wife and three kids were involved in a terrible car accident. His wife and young daughter did not survive. His two young boys were hospitalized. Biden strongly considered giving it all up, saying that the people of his state “can always get another senator,” but that his children “can’t get another father.”
Biden was convinced to give it a try and was sworn in early in January, 1973, at the hospital, alongside his son Beau’s hospital bed. In 2015, Beau died of a brain tumor at the age of 46. His father has maintained that it was caused by exposure to toxic burn pits during Beau’s military service in Iraq.
One of Biden’s undisputed strengths has always been his ability to comfort those who are struggling with grief. As a man who has known so much loss in his life, he turned pain into purpose and was always adept at relating to Americans who are coping with tragedy, in a way few others ever could.
What President Biden accomplished in four years in office exceeds what most have done in two terms. It is incredible that with just 50 senators on his side, the slimmest majority possible, he accomplished so much legislatively with the passage of the pandemic relief bill, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act, to name a few.
This ending – after a personal life filled with loss, and a public life that began with being told he was too young to serve to exiting as he is told he is too old to serve – is almost shakespearean. After five decades of service from a truly honorable man of integrity, though it is sad, it feels as if, of course, this is what fate would have scripted for Joe Biden.
Campaign-wise, this is not where Democrats ever wanted to be, but we are here. Excitement for our presidential nominee has gone from waning to soaring. Donations are pouring in, poll numbers are looking better, and media attention has shifted to the new candidate. Now, with less than 100 days until election day, it is time to focus on fulfilling the opportunity Biden has given us to ensure we elect a president that believes in the democratic ideals of America.
