US President Joe Biden said Wednesday that ending Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip would be one of his highest priorities as he ends his presidency.
Biden used his first public address since his announcement Sunday that he was quitting the November election race to deliver an implicit repudiation of his erstwhile rival, former president Donald Trump. He did not directly call out Trump, whom he has called an existential threat to democracy.
The 10-minute address, a somber coda to his 50 years in public office, also gave Biden a chance to try to shape how history will remember his one and only term in office. Biden took the opportunity to again throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him.
It was a moment for the history books — a US president reflecting before the nation on why he was voluntarily handing off power, which hasn’t been done since 1968.
“I revere this office,” Biden said. “But I love my country more.”
Speaking on Wednesday, Biden was determined to show that his decision not to run would not hinder his agenda as his term winds down over the next six months. He remained committed to what he has long believed are his strengths, foreign policy and maintaining US leadership in the world.
“I’m going to keep working to end the war in Gaza, to bring home all the hostages and to bring peace and security to the Middle East and end this war,” he said.
Biden is set to meet Thursday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a day after Netanyahu vowed before Congress to keep fighting until Hamas is defeated in Gaza. Biden did not attend Netanyahu’s speech, and Harris declined to preside over it, citing a scheduling conflict.
“The leaders will discuss developments in Gaza and progress towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal and the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, including countering Iran’s threats to Israel and the broader region,” a White House statement said.
Netanyahu was also set later in the day to meet Harris, who has all but secured the nomination to face Trump, whom Netanyahu will visit in Florida on Friday.
As the premier addressed Congress, protesters thronged outside the Capitol, demanding he be arrested as a “war criminal.”
Anti-Israel sentiment has also chipped away at support for Biden, as the US president has been assailed for arming Israel amid its devastating offensive in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’s thousands-strong October 7 onslaught on southern Israel that left some 1,200 people dead and saw 251 taken hostage.
Asserting that “the defense of democracy is more important than any title,” Biden on Wednesday cast his decision to withdraw as a bid to defend democracy from the threat the US president believes is posed by Trump.
“Nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy,” Biden said. “And that includes personal ambition.”
“The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule,” Biden said. “The people do. History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America — lies in your hands.”
Biden skirted the political reality that brought him to withdraw from the election: His abysmal performance in a debate against Trump nearly a month ago, where he spoke haltingly, appeared ashen and failed to rebut his predecessor’s attacks, sparked a crisis of confidence from Democrats.
Lawmakers and ordinary voters questioned not just whether he was capable of beating Trump in November, but also whether, at 81, he was still fit for the high-pressure job.
Biden, who said he believed his record was deserving of another term in office, tried to outlast the skepticism and quell the concerns with interviews and tepid rallies, but the pressure to end his campaign only mounted from the party’s political elites and from ordinary voters.
“I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” Biden said, saying he wanted to make room for “fresh voices, yes, younger voices.”
He added, “That is the best way to unite our nation.”
It was a belated fulfillment of his 2020 pledge to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders — and a bow to the drumbeat of calls from within his party to step aside. When he launched his campaign in 2019, Biden said he was moved to run after Trump’s equivocation two years earlier in condemning white supremacists who organized a deadly march in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Biden’s advisers say he intends to hold campaign events and fundraisers for Harris, albeit at a far slower pace than if he had remained on the ballot himself.
“She’s tough. She’s capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country,” Biden said.
Harris’s advisers will ultimately have to decide how to deploy the president, whose popularity sagged as voters in both parties questioned his fitness for office.
Biden, aides say, knows that if Harris loses, he’ll be criticized for staying in the race too long and not giving her or another Democrat time to effectively mount a campaign against Trump. If she wins, she’ll ensure his policy victories are secured and expanded, and he’ll be remembered for a Washingtonian decision to step aside for the next generation of leadership.
Biden said he’s grateful to have served as US president.
“Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter, from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as president of the United States,” Biden said. “But here I am.”
“I’ve given my heart and my soul to our nation,” he said. “I’ve been blessed a million times in return.”
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that any question of Biden resigning his office before the election — which would allow Harris to run as an incumbent — was “ridiculous.”
Jean-Pierre said Biden has “no regrets” about his decision to stay in the race as long as he did, or his decision to quit it over the weekend. She said Biden’s decision had nothing to do with his health.
Trump, who watched Biden’s remarks from his private jet, posted on his social media platform that the president “was barely understandable, and sooo bad!”
As he spoke inside the Oval Office, Biden was joined off-camera by family members, including his wife, Jill, son Hunter, daughter Ashley and several grandchildren.
Hundreds of administration aides held a watch party in the White House and gathered in the Rose Garden afterward to hear Biden thank them for their service. Outside the gates, supporters of Biden gathered holding signs that read “We love Joe,” and a brass band played.
Biden’s political career began when he was elected to the Senate in 1972 at age 29, becoming the sixth-youngest US senator. He will conclude his White House tenure on January 20, 2025, as the oldest American president when he will have already turned 82.
He joins James Polk, James Buchanan, Rutherford Hayes, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson as US presidents who decided not to stand for a second elected term.