US President Joe Biden will give what could be his final Oval Office speech on Wednesday, explaining why he stepped out of the November election and denying that he will serve as a lame duck for six months.
With the world’s attention already focused on the upcoming confrontation between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Biden will stress that he still has work to do, despite his historic choice to step down.
The 81-year-old Democrat announced on X that he will explain “what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people” at 8:00 p.m. (0000 GMT Thursday).
The speech, which is scheduled to last eight to ten minutes, will be Biden’s first since withdrawing from the race on Sunday following weeks of criticism over a catastrophic debate performance against Trump.
He had pledged in his withdrawal statement, made while he was quarantined with Covid at his Delaware beach home, to provide Americans with further information about his shocking choice.
It comes just over a week after his last Oval Office address, which followed an assassination attempt on Trump on July 13, yet it is just the fourth of his presidency – and could be his last.
With Harris, who has practically claimed the Democratic presidential nomination, and Trump both back on the campaign road, Biden will face an uphill battle to convince Americans that he is not yesterday’s guy.
Republicans have called for Biden’s resignation, claiming that if he is not fit to run for reelection, he is unable to serve as president.
The senior Democrat insists he still has much to give, with a special emphasis on the economy and attaining the elusive peace in Israel’s fight with Hamas in Gaza.
‘Not going anywhere’
Biden, who will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Thursday, has stated that they are close to reaching an agreement on a truce in Gaza.
He would not be the first US president to seek a legacy-defining Middle East peace treaty, after Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and even Donald Trump before him.
However, as a reminder of how swiftly things are moving, Netanyahu will meet separately with Harris on Thursday, who was unable to attend his address to Congress on Wednesday due to a previously scheduled campaign trip.
Meanwhile, Trump said in a Truth Social post that he will meet with Netanyahu on Friday at the Republican’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
With his presidency coming to an end, Biden told X late Tuesday that it was “great to be back at the White House” after returning from Delaware, and that he had met with his national security staff to receive a briefing.
His decision to drop out has injected new energy into a Democratic Party that had been thrown into disarray by the argument over his age.
On Tuesday, an enthusiastic Harris was cheered to the rafters at her first campaign rally in the battleground state of Wisconsin, her first since announcing that she had won the delegates required for the nomination.
She might be nominated as early as August in a virtual vote by Democratic delegates ahead of the party’s convention in Chicago, which takes place just over two weeks later.
Harris’ goal now will be to retain that passion and then translate it into electoral triumph in November.
Trump is scheduled to speak in Charlotte later Wednesday, his first rally since Harris became the de facto nominee.
He is anticipated to intensify his attacks on her, as at least one national survey conducted following Biden’s resignation found Harris marginally ahead.
Meanwhile, the impact of Biden’s decision on Americans dissatisfied with the long-running feud between him and Trump was becoming clearer.
Vote.org, a non-profit voter registration organization, announced Wednesday that it had registered approximately 40,000 voters in the 48 hours following Biden’s bombshell speech, representing a roughly 700 percent daily increase.
“That’s the largest number of new voters registered over a 48-hour period we’ve seen this entire cycle,” posted Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey on X.