U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks subsequent to U.S. President Joe Biden at an occasion in Prince George’s County, Maryland, U.S., August 15, 2024.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
President Joe Biden’s function on the Democratic Nationwide Conference subsequent week could have been dramatically reshaped by his choice to finish his bid for a second time period, however his message in regards to the stakes of this election will sound acquainted, in response to a number of Biden officers.
The outgoing president will make the case for Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him when he delivers Monday’s keynote handle, partly by touting their accomplishments over the last 4 years.
However Biden will even clarify that he nonetheless believes Republican nominee Donald Trump poses a grave risk to American democracy and urge delegates in Chicago and voters watching throughout the nation to do their half to defeat him once more in November, aides say.
“After saving democracy in 2020, President Biden is decided to defeat the risk to democracy posed by Donald Trump,” one official mentioned.
The primary day of the conference in Chicago will embody a sequence of tributes to Biden as he prepares to finish a half-century profession of public service. Simply weeks in the past, in fact, all the conference was centered round serving to make the case for extending that service by 4 extra years. However now it would supply the president one other alternative to try to form his legacy.
The president will spend the weekend at Camp David fine-tuning his remarks with the assistance of senior advisers, together with lead speechwriters Mike Donilon and Vinay Reddy. The remarks will construct on the message he delivered within the Oval Workplace shortly after dropping out of the race and make a forceful case for Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
The speech, officers say, might be a reminder of the significance of Biden instantly endorsing Harris after asserting he would finish his candidacy, serving to to rapidly unite a celebration in disaster behind her historic candidacy. Though Biden fought exhausting to stay within the race after his poor debate efficiency, his addressing the conference on the primary evening permits him to go the torch to her and Walz, Biden officers advised NBC Information.
“The President is happy on the momentum behind the marketing campaign and appears ahead to creating his case,” an official mentioned.
Biden aides, although, consider the conference will proceed to spotlight the Biden-Harris report after he leaves with a view to make a distinction with the Republican ticket.
“4 years in the past, America was reeling from a once-in-a-century pandemic, remoted on the world stage, crime was up, the center class sidelined,” an official mentioned. “At the moment: We’re the worldwide engine of development, our Alliances are robust, violent crime fee is at a 50-year low, border crossings are decrease than when the earlier administration left workplace, and we’re making progress on the problems Individuals care about most.”
Members of the Biden household will be a part of the president and first woman, who will converse forward of her husband. Longtime associates and supporters of Biden will even be touring collectively on a chartered airplane from Delaware to attend the speech, and a number of other aides have organized a celebration for them and different present and former workers in Chicago Monday evening.
Different parts of the conference that had been meant to spice up Biden’s candidacy will stay as tributes, beginning with a conference brand that borrows from his 2020 marketing campaign design. All conference delegates will even obtain “Cup of Joe”-branded espresso, and signage across the United Heart on Monday will invoke phrases from Biden’s Oval Workplace handle, comparable to “Historical past is in your fingers,” in addition to a household mantra: “Unfold the religion.”
Biden will go away Chicago after his handle Monday to spend the remainder of the week in Southern California. There, he’ll huddle with prime advisers who’ve been working for the previous month to agency up plans for his remaining months in workplace.
A Biden official mentioned the president “could have an intensive home schedule — touring throughout the nation to maintain reminding Individuals that they’re going to have to decide on between his imaginative and prescient and the Vice President’s imaginative and prescient to maneuver the nation ahead, not backward.”
“And the President will struggle to make each day of his time period depend to construct on these historic achievements,” the official added. “Anticipate aggressive implementation of historic laws, actions to decrease prices, and a packed overseas coverage agenda.”
