In one of his last major appearances before he leaves office in five months, President Biden formally passed the torch to Vice President Harris Monday night, as the packed convention hall chanted in adulation for a prolonged stretch as he came onstage, reports The Washington Post.
For about five minutes after Biden appeared just before 11:30 p.m. Eastern time, thousands of delegates and supporters cheered for him in a show of thanks for his five decades of public service. The convention organizers had handed out “We love Joe” signs before the president’s speech, which the crowd held up and chanted in addition to “Thank you, Joe.”
Biden’s daughter, Ashley, introduced him, and he wiped tears from his eyes as he took the stage and hugged her.
Biden’s speech sought to thread the needle between promoting his own record and framing up the 2024 race, reports a separate Post article. Biden went into extensive detail about his proudest accomplishments, while interspersing attacks on former President Trump and playing up Harris’ contributions.
“Because of you, we’ve had one of the most extraordinary four years of progress ever, period,” he said. “When I say ‘we,’ I mean Kamala and me.”
“It’s been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your President,” Biden said. "I love the job, but I love my country more.”
“And all this talk about how I’m angry at all those people who said I should step down, that’s not true,” he said. "I love my country more. And we need to preserve our democracy in 2024.”
"Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made when I became our nominee,” he said. "And it was the best decision I made my whole career.”
"I promise I’ll be the best volunteer Harris and Walz’s camp have ever seen,” he said.
Here are a transcript and video of Biden’s speech, from Time.
Earlier in the evening, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, said, "Together we put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling. And tonight, we are so close to breaking through once and for all.”
Clinton described a vision of Harris “on the other side of that glass ceiling” taking the oath of office as president.
Earlier, Harris made an unscheduled appearance onstage to pay tribute to Biden. She told him, “Thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you’ll continue to do. We are forever grateful to you.”
Here are takeaways of the evening’s events, from The Associated Press.
And here are highlights from the entire day, by NBC News.