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President Joe Biden is set to deliver one of the most historic speeches in his half-century life in politics as he addresses the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday about his decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
His 8 p.m. speech will be his first extensive remarks since his announcement Sunday that he was not running and was endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris — a stunning moment that capped off weeks of Democratic anxiety about the top of the ticket.
Harris, who quickly secured the backing of enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination, hit the campaign trail Tuesday in the key battleground state of Wisconsin, where she sought to draw a contrast with Donald Trump. The former president will hold his first campaign rally since Biden dropped out in North Carolina on Wednesday.
Biden, who returned to the White House on Tuesday after testing negative for Covid-19, began drafting his highly anticipated address while isolating with the virus in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, senior officials told CNN.
The president and his longtime communications aide, Mike Donilon, began early work on the speech shortly after Biden went public with his decision to exit the race, after three weeks of mounting intraparty pressure. (Donilon, a former pollster, played an instrumental role in presenting the data that informed Biden’s decision to step aside.)
The president intends to use the prime-time remarks to reveal to the American people how he arrived at the painful decision, sources told CNN, which he said in his letter Sunday he believed was “in the best interest of my party and the country.”
Oval Office addresses have historically been serious moments for presidents to speak to the American people at times of national crisis or to make major policy announcements. It will be only the fourth time Biden has addressed the nation from the Oval Office as president. And it’s the second time in just 10 days, after Biden earlier this month spoke to the country following the assassination attempt against Trump. He’s also used the setting to speak about last year’s Hamas attack on Israel and the passage of a bipartisan budget agreement.
Like all of Biden’s public speeches throughout his presidency, officials expect this address will be a work in progress up until delivery.
How much Biden focuses on what he views as his core achievements of his 3½ years in the office he sought for several decades — versus how much he details his to-do list for the six months before he leaves the White House — is still being decided, officials said.
As Harris visited campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday, Biden briefly called in, vowing “to get as much done as I possibly can” in his remaining time in office.
And while the party moves on from Biden’s candidacy — reassigning high-profile fundraisers from coast to coast to the Harris camp — it is also trying to cement his legacy.
Biden himself is expected to turn his attention in the coming days and weeks to the legacy of his one-term presidency. But, as one source told CNN, with the decision to drop out of the 2024 race only days old, such discussions have not begun in earnest.
Asked by a reporter what the country should expect during his address as he disembarked Air Force One on Tuesday, Biden responded: “Watch and listen.”
