Biden Finally Gets His Convention Moment—As He’s Pushed From the Stage
The president has not had a crowd like this since 2016. Aides admit it was bittersweet.
Chicago, Illinois
EIGHT YEARS AGO, JOE BIDEN took the stage at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, the theme music from Rocky blaring as a crazed crowd waved orange “Joe” signs in front of him.
For nearly 40 seconds he stood at the lectern as those in the Wells Fargo Center refused to stop their cheers.
Biden spoke about the passing of his son Beau, his eyes welling up. He quoted Hemingway—“the world breaks everyone”—and made the case for the historic female candidate on the Democratic ticket and against the Republican one: Donald Trump. He’d decided well before that night not to run for the White House that cycle. But he wasn’t at peace with that decision.
“I think he walked off that stage knowing that if he had run he probably would have won,” said Steve Schale, a former Obama-Biden adviser from Florida who leads a pro-Biden super PAC.
On Monday night, Biden found himself once again on a convention stage making the case against Trump and for a groundbreaking female Democrat. And, once more, the adoration of the Democratic faithful poured down on him. They were paying tribute to a career of 50-plus years in politics coming to a close.
But the Biden onstage in Chicago was different from the Biden of eight years ago, his gait slower, his delivery more jagged and halting. And the night also served as a painful reminder that appreciation often is only in abundance in the moments of heartache or self-sacrifice, or when you’re being shown the exit.
“He’s got a strong family. There’s a lot of people who care about him deeply. And there is an incredible amount to be proud of,” said former Sen. Chris Dodd, a longtime Biden friend. “I hope he understands that. I think he will. It may not be today or next week. There will be moments which will be dark. But there will be many, many more moments that won’t be.”
BIDEN’S ADDRESS ON MONDAY EVENING can be viewed through a variety of lenses: the victory lap of a consequential president, the reluctant passing of the torch, the bittersweet farewell of a political fixture, the pushing offstage of a leader whose utility is in doubt. It was each of those.
Biden came to the United Center stage at nearly 11:30 p.m. Eastern, an hour when many viewers had likely given up for the night. After introductions from fellow Delawarean Sen. Chris Coons, First Lady Jill Biden, and daughter Ashley Biden—who praised his “grace, strength, and humility”—the 81-year-old president walked stiffly to the lectern to Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher.”
Biden was obviously touched by the warmth of the reception, bringing a kerchief to his eye to dab a tear as the crowd’s deafening cheer enveloped him for four minutes and 29 seconds. “Thank you, Joe!” the audience chanted, as he put his hands up, imploring them to stop and let him speak. In the stands, his sister Val Biden was spotted crying.
Earlier in the evening, speakers from Hillary Clinton to Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) had used their speeches to laud the president and his record. Biden used his speech to recount the accomplishments of his term, from getting COVID under control to creating 16 million new jobs and bringing down inflation. It was a speech that sounded like most of the others he delivered since entering the race, extolling the virtues of unions and leveling the same criticisms of Trump in shouty, slurring bursts. But implicit in his remarks was an admission that work remained; that even the achievements were at risk.
“Democracy has prevailed. Democracy has delivered. And now democracy must be preserved,” he said.
The speech, which lasted nearly 50 minutes, was largely devoid of notes of sentimentality—until the end, when Biden acknowledged that his time on the stage was coming to a close.
“I’ve got five months left in my presidency. I’ve got a lot to do. I intend to get it done. I love the job but I love my country more,” he declared at one point.
“I made a lot of mistakes in my career but I gave my best to you. . . . And I’ve been blessed a million times in return with the support of the American people,” he said at another. “I hope you know how grateful I am to all of you.”
The crowd, which had settled into a more subdued state after its initial applause, burst into cheers when Biden ended, and once more as he turned back to them before leaving the stage, as if to soak in the wave of adoration he may not get again.
“I CAN’T IMAGINE WHAT HE’S GOING THROUGH, to be honest. It’s got to be bittersweet. I mean, he did something that was so rare, to give up power. It was so selfless,” said Justin Flemming, a Pennsylvania delegate who was in the convention hall and witnessed Biden’s speech.
Flemming said the cheers in the hall were a token of appreciation from a crowd that knows “he’s been a transformative president to get done what he has in such a short time, and to also step away when he had to. It’s amazing. The people in this room will never forget that.”
But for the cadre of Biden advisers and aides, the convention address was also a reminder of the type of presidency that never was. Because of COVID, Biden had only two notable victory-night celebrations during the 2020 Democratic primary—South Carolina and Super Tuesday. He did not have a major event when he became the presumptive nominee. His 2020 convention was virtual and wildly atypical; his speech that year started out with him standing in the dark, nary a person around him to applaud.
Election night 2020 was spent with people honking at him in cars. His inauguration took place not just in the midst of the pandemic but in the shadow of January 6th. The effects of that day were visible behind him. The crowd, masked and seated apart from one another, was so sparse that one could hear the cables from the flags slam against the poles when a gust of wind struck.
As president, Biden spoke only occasionally to large crowds abroad. He has not had a domestic audience of this size since that night in Philadelphia in 2016.
Biden’s aides concede that these are small, largely superficial, considerations; that the objective of running is not to bask in the crowds but help them. But there is also a sense that his career has had an almost classically Irish element to it; that the road rising up to meet him has had some serious potholes, that pain has formed the wisdom, and that his defining feature is his endurance.
“We’re here to show our love and appreciation for our favorite son,” said Sarah McBride, a delegate and congressional candidate from Biden’s home state of Delaware. “For all of us in Delaware, we can’t imagine a time when Joe Biden has not been in the Senate, in the White House, serving as vice president.”
There are few major political figures in recent history who have had such a combination of successes and tragedies. Biden lost his daughter and wife soon after being elected to the Senate. He suffered a near-fatal brain aneurysm shortly after dropping his 1988 presidential bid. He lost his son Beau in 2015 and watched his son Hunter descend into depths of addiction in the years after.
“When he was running in 2020, he once said that for him there were much worse things than losing the presidency,” said Anita Dunn, who has been a senior adviser in Biden’s orbit for years. “He experienced those. It gave him a perspective. It also gave him a sense of running for a reason as opposed to running because he wanted the office.”
Those tribulations earned him empathy and provided perspective. But those aren’t necessarily ingredients for electoral support. Poor reviews of the job he has done on the economy, serious concerns over his health and stamina, and a historically bad debate performance led enough top Democrats to conclude that the man to whom they’d turned to defeat Trump in 2020 couldn’t do it again in 2024.
A faction of Biden’s aides remains embittered about it weeks later, believing he was owed more of a chance to prove his capacity for the job. Biden himself still wears a bit of sadness even as he projects acceptance.
“He seems positive to me,” said Dodd. “I would expect there are moments. It would be understandable. It would be rather remarkable if he didn’t have some strong feelings about what he felt were excellent opportunities to continue legislating but also that he could win the election.”
But, in more hushed circles, there is also some relief. The reception Biden received on Monday may have underscored that the crowd loves you most when you’re not the man. But it also was, for some aides, the convention that he deserved.
“I was definitely in a camp of people who thought seriously about whether he should run again,” said Schale. “I worried that had he stayed in the race it would have been a really hard convention and had he lost he never would have gotten that moment.”