Biden Leaves the Stage

my name is David GIS I'm a climate. reporter at the New York Times and I. wanted to tell you about a live event. I'll be hosting this fall it's called. climate forward and it's happening on. September 25th in New York City my. colleagues and I will be speaking with. world leaders activists innovators. scientists and more asking tough. questions about the climate crisis and. having conversations that just don't. take place anywhere else you can. purchase tickets at NY. times.com sevent.

I'm Sabrina taveri and this is the. daily on the first night of the. Democratic National Convention the stage. belonged to the man who chose to give it. up today I spoke with my colleagues. Katie Rogers and Peter Baker about Joe. Biden's private pain since stepping. aside and his public message here in. Chicago.

it's Tuesday August. [Music]. 20th is this the line we need to get on. this is the. line oh. gosh I'd say we're going to be here 45. minutes or. so. w my goodness least nice birds and. flowers. [Music]. here little butterfly.

oh there it is I can see the United. Center now see it's through the yeah but. can you see the front of the line. no line line. [Music]. line I feel like the season is passing. as we're like waiting there's like a. cicada coming up I see some leaves. turning. [Music]. yeah you got it have your credentials. ready. oh is this the.

end okay so we're through the line it. was indeed 45 minutes as I predicted and. we are standing outside a giant building. with a big blue sign on it that says. Democratic National Convention and it is. kamla Harris's convention it is her week. but it is Joe Biden's. night tonight he's going to take the. stage give a speech to an entire party.

who forced him. out and many of us know the broad story. of how he decided to step aside but the. question always has been what was the. thing in the end that fundamentally made. him drop out but my colleague Katie. Rogers has gotten inside the final few. days for Biden in making that decision. so we're going to go talk to her about. what ultimately drove Biden to make this.

decision to leave the. race okay big New York Times. area may be seeing a lot of other people. I know oh here she. is. Katie hi how are you are you ready yes. okay cool welcome we're so glad to have. you so Katie just to start I wonder if. you could reflect for a moment about. what this convention was supposed to be. up until a month ago right I mean this.

is something that President Biden had. been looking forward to he had been. workshopping a big convention speech you. know this is something that Biden didn't. get in 2020 if you remember we were in. the middle of a pandemic this was all. done virtually for him this would have. been the very first time in his career. that he was the Presidential nominee at. a huge 50,000 person strong convention. you know you get the balloons you get. the big banners with your bidenisms.

broadcast everywhere it was a moment. this President doesn't really ever get. to have I mean it's been a moment he's. wanted for decades right so many people. cheering for him and choosing him in a. way validation he has wanted the. validation of being that choice and will. not get that now instead of this moment. where he gets to you know lay the. groundwork for a second term he is. ending his political career in Chicago.

on. stage Katy you and our colleagues have. been reporting on why he decided to give. up something he wanted so badly tell us. about what you found right so it starts. almost exactly a month ago the president. is campaigning and comes down with covid. and is rushed home on Air Force One to. his beach home in reoboth in Delaware. there he is joined by his wife Jill.

Biden the first lady and there are two. other AIDS who are very close to him. another key adviser was in raob at the. time sort of on standby named Steve rete. he's The Keeper of the president's. political relationship so a lot of the. party leaders were funneling their alarm. and their worry and their unhappiness. through Steve ret so Friday the. president was sick and didn't really get. out of bed much he read the papers by.

the pool the next day though he gets on. the phone calls Steve rete and says I. need you and Mike at the house and Mike. is Mike donalan the president's most. senior strategist the writer of his. speeches really The Keeper of the Biden. flame if you will Biden rete and donalan. go over the polling go over what people. in the party are saying and essentially. say to the president look if you want to.

do this we can get you there we have. been around all of us long enough to. know that the polling can be wrong we. can get you there it's sort of a. cultural belief in the Biden Circle to. not discount polls but to look at them. and say well we have been here before. but it is going to be a climb and you. are going to do it alone without the. support of Democratic Party leaders he.

will be ripping apart his party if he. wants to do this finally Biden who is. still sick and weakened with covid says. to them well what would we tell the. American people meaning if you were to. drop out exactly what would we say and. that's really the first moment that. Biden wants to see something on paper. that is an announcement that he would be. leaving the race.

the President says to them that he wants. to sleep on it and they let him go. upstairs he's sleeping in a spare. bedroom because he has covid um so he's. alone so he's alone on one of the most. important nights of his life and you. know people close enough to him to know. his thinking in this moment have told me. that it was not decided but everybody. sort of knew where he was going the next. morning he gets up the letter gets fin. finalized and it is published on X.

exactly 1 minute after he calls into a. senior staff meeting and is reading the. letter to them telling them that he is. leaving the race so it sounds like the. calculations for him are not about. winning or losing but really about the. party and party unity and not wanting to. as you say rip it apart exactly what do. we know about how he's been feeling. about that decision since then that was. a month ago as we said right so in the.

moment you know it's been described to. me as peace a sense of understanding. that he was not willing to do what would. have been required of him politically to. keep going and I think in the weak sense. I think he has experienced a mixture of. emotions the president it should be. noted I think is a pretty proud person. there was a really big day a few weeks. ago where.

three American hostages were released. from Russian custody as part of a really. complicated Seven Nation prisoner swap. that is you know as Jake Sullivan the. president's National Security adviser. was fighting back tears talking to us. that day saying this is vintage Joe. Biden this is what he's best at. complicated foreign policy that was a. moment for somebody like Biden to say. hey I'm still the president and I was on.

the tarmac at you know midnight when. those hostages came off and was talking. about the importance of allies the. importance of diplomatic relationships. essentially saying the importance of my. experience is this yeah and if you know. how he approaches politics you know that. he is saying in that moment I have value. this is what I bring this is what I am. good at and he wants the chances to be. able to say that it's like he's sending.

a message to the people who pushed him. out totally yes yes and speaking of the. people who pushed him out you know I. think there are people close to the. president who you know have told me as. much saying this party will have to. reconcile with what it did to a sitting. president who the voters had Chosen and. you know I think that there is definite. resentment frustration distrust former. president Obama was somebody who was. making a lot of calls to party leaders.

including you know he was in touch with. the Vice President in the days before. the president decided to drop out there. is definitely a sense of resentment. toward Nancy Pelosi the former house. speaker for saying things like well you. know if he does drop out I think we. should have an open convention to. basically before he's even made the. decision to say well here's how it could. look in what I think he just sort of has. pushed out right right so one of the.

things he did is saying I fully support. the vice president as the person to. carry on my legacy and to win this. election and prevent another term for. Trump and it really shut down talk of. other people jumping into this race she. locked it up there's got to be a land. speed record for that um you know there. were these conversations about we don't. want it to be a coordination but you. know it was pretty close and that is. because Biden made the strongest case he. could for her at a moment where the.

Democratic party had leaders saying well. let's do this or I would like this or. maybe this person and Biden all but said. well no we're going with my person we're. going with the vice president I picked. so again he doesn't want to see this. party infighting he endorses her so that. there's not this nasty public battle. right again Unity it was a Unity play. and it was again a fear of his that this. would happen should he not really make a. strong case for her and you know it's.

interesting because you know the. reporting we had leading up was also. that he privately did not necessarily. believe that Harris could win and got to. this point by the time he decided to. leave the race that he clearly believed. that she was the one who could yeah so. in a way one way of looking at this. convention is that it's not his. convention but he did have a big hand in. making it her convention I think that's.

right it's definitely not his big event. to headline anymore you know he's coming. in as not the changed candidate that so. many Democrats are seeing in Harris now. but as sort of this throw back figure. almost that is passing the Baton to her. and I think he sees the vice president. as somebody who is best position to. carry forward his legacy she's taking. the Baton from me I save Dem y she will.

preserve. [Music]. it you know and inside the United Center. where we are delegates who are arriving. are getting little coffee bean packets. that say cup of Joe on them and the. digital banners will say spread the. faith and a couple other bidenisms and. then they go dark when he's done and. they flip over to Harris walls and the. sort of messages associated with her. campaign so there's a lot of talk of. gratitude for.

him the thing is though is that Joe. Biden has been around long enough to. understand that the second beat to thank. you so much is thank you so much for. dropping a campaign that Democratic. voters did not believe in thank you so. much for getting off the stage and for. somebody like him that has got to be. very Bittersweet and uh a tough moment. to get through. Katie thank you thank you for having.

[Music]. me so right now we're at the arena and. we are about to go inside to talk to. delegates these are people who will. formalize kamla Harris's. nomination and we are going to talk to. them about Joe Biden how are people. seeing him in this moment. oh my God hi are you a delegate I am a.

delegate where are you from Michigan. Michigan the great state of Michigan. okay my name is Sabrina hi Sabrina hi. Bob nice to meet you well his name is. Rob actually Rob I'll take Bob yeah. whatever so a question for you one word. to describe Joe Biden if you had one. word what would it be heroic dedicated. honorable courageous. delarian he is an American Patriot he.

has been such an incredible leader for. our nation for years he he's been an. amazing public servant I'm I'm a little. Misty I I have such affection for him I. was sad very sad to see him make the. decision he made but he made the right. decision for the. country in some ways does part of you. wish he was the nominee still no no. because the election is turned on a dime. it's going in the right direction now.

was going in a very bad Direction before. I mean in less than a month she's turned. over this campaign she's brought people. together in just incredible ways now. that's not to take away from Joe Biden. or to say I you know I mean I love Joe. Biden how's it going to feel tonight. watching him. speak I don't know but I brought. Kleenex I think we're all here to give. him his flowers to say thank you we're. going to be proud of for him uh it's a.

valid Victory and he's deserved it and. earned it I think that there's going to. be an incredible outpouring of love. respect and honor for for him I'm not. sad for him I'm proud of him I'm just. I'm like I'm in awe of him really I am. in and I think we're living history. right now I mean we're living history. tonight I think the history is going to. show wow what an Incredible Gift that. Joe Biden has given us.

[Music]. we'll be right. back I'm Julian Barnes I'm an. intelligence reporter at the New York. Times I try to find out what the US. government is keeping secret governments. keep secrets for all kinds of reasons. they might be embarrassed by the. information they might think the public. can't understand it but we at the New. York Times think that democracy works. best when the public is informed it. takes a lot of time to find people.

willing to talk about those Secrets many. people with information have a certain. agenda or have a certain angle and. that's why it requires talking to a lot. of people to make sure that we're not. misled and that we give a complete story. to our readers if the New York Times was. not reporting these stories some of them. might never come to light if you want to. support this kind of work you can do. that by subscribing to the New York. Times. [Music].

so we are walking to the arena from the. Press Center I'm walking with my friend. and admired colleague Peter Baker. admirer I I'm an Admire of you um and we. are first going to have a conversation. and then we're going to go in to watch. Biden's speech. together okay so we're going to talk to. Peter about what he expects from the. speech tonight what do you expect you oh.

well look it's a really fascinating. moment right because Joe Biden has been. coming to conventions like this since. 1972 he's given a lot of speeches but. this is the first one where he has to. basically give a speech saying I'm done. and it's something he's always resisted. his whole thesis of his political career. his whole life really is if you're. knocked down you get back up well now. he's going to say okay this is the end. for me after more than 50 years on the. public stage so he's speaking a couple. different audiences one of course is the. audience here in the hall and the. national audience watching on television.

need's going to try to frame his. accomplishments and pass the torch to. KLA Harris and then the second audience. he's talking to really is history he's. trying to say who is Joe Biden what did. it matter that he was President for four. years where does he fit in our national. story and it's going to be a really. fascinating speech to watch and what do. you make of the fact that it's happening. on Monday the first day of the. convention but you know this is the day. they've chosen for him yeah Monday is of. course a demotion right he expected to. give his speech on Thursday when he was. to accept the nomination that's the big.

night that's the night you want to give. a speech he's been demoted to Monday. which is usually the night for the. forers and you can already see in the. last few weeks if you go to the White. House every day or you watch him give. his public presentations what few he's. done you can feel the energy and the. power and the attention drifting away. from him and it's a palpable thing when. a president becomes a lame duck and you. really have seen it these last few weeks. and now tonight he'll get up there he'll. give his speech and then he's going to. get on a later tonight and he's going to.

head off to California and he won't be. here for the rest of the convention he's. going to literally seed the stage of KLA. Harris and it's the symbolic way the. Democratic part is going to say we're. moving on all right the Joe Biden era is. essentially over now and we're moving on. to the KLA Harris era and he will be on. vacation you won't see him in public. really again until Labor Day I guess. Peter you know it is really a. fundamentally human moment that we're. witnessing here right I mean this is a. man who had all of these years in public. service and the one thing he wanted most.

in the world was this that he's now. giving up and that feels really just in. the sweep of History pretty remarkable. and a very human moment yeah it really. is in some ways it's the most human. story it's the actually all of our story. because all of us eventually are going. to run out of time right he has been in. public life for a half century more than. any other president before him by the. way he has been running for president. since a lot of the people in this Arena. were children his first campaign was in. 1987. his second one of course was in 2008 he.

didn't win either time finally he wins. in 2020 and so to say okay I'm going to. give it up after spending a lifetime of. trying to get there it goes against the. grain it just just completely against. everything that he sees in himself his. life has been full of tragedy and. setback followed by comeback and. resilience and here is the first time he. is not bouncing back so he's done the. one thing that he prided himself on. never doing but at some point you cannot.

outrace time you cannot outrace the. impact of age and as much as he wanted. to stay on the stage his time has come. and he's had to accept that and it's not. an easy thing to do but tonight kind of. brings that to the four in a very public. way and he's I think going to use this. opportunity to frame that exit okay. let's watch that speech Let's watch. [Music].

um we're going two. over so we're sitting at the very top. row in the. arena and you can really see everything. from here it's pretty amazing thousands. and thousands of delegates and this huge. TV. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. screen and now I would like to. introduce my father your 46th president.

of the United States Joe. [Applause]. Biden so he's smiling he's looking up. into the crowd he's putting his hand. over his. eyes thank. you I love. you they're chanting thank you Joe thank. you you. Joe look his eyes are tearing.

up he's always been an emotional. politician not afraid to show emotion in. public this has got to be one of the. most emotional moments of his political. career my fellow Americans nearly four. years. ago in Winter on the steps of the. capital on a cold January day I raised. my right hand and I swore an oath to you. and to God. to.

preserve protect and defend the. Constitution and the Faithfully execute. the Office of the President of the. United. States in front of. me in front of me was the city. surrounded by the National. Guard behind. me a capital this two weeks before have. been overrun by a violent. mob but I knew. then from the bottom of my heart that I.

knew. now there is no place in America for. political violence. none Biden's presidency has been rooted. in that January 6th attack and the. aftermath basically for four years and. in a way KLA Harris is going to run a. different campaign because rather than. talk about the past she's trying to say. that she's about the future as important. as January 6th is a lot of Americans. want to move.

on and the difference between his. approach to it and hers is rather. striken I stand before you now on this. August Night to report that democracy. has. prevailed democracy has prevailed is the. line he used in his inauguration dress. in January. 2021 and now democracy must be preserved. this was the reason he gave to run right.

this is the reason he gave to run in. 2020 it's the same narrative and it's. the. same you know evaluation of where we are. as a country in effect he's trying to. say this is the battle that we have to. wage and even though he's not going to. be the one waging it now going forward. he's telling these Democrats that they. have to continue the fight I also. ran to rebuild the backbone of. America the middle class.

so here he's moving on to Legacy yeah. yeah he's moving on to Legacy he wants. to talk about what he has done in these. last three years on legislation on. foreign policy presumably on on domestic. policy we have done that and many of. those jobs in the so-called Fabs the. buildings that make the chips that's. being constructed now and guess what the. average salary in those Fabs size of a. football. field will be over $100,000 a year and.

you don't need a college. degree that's that's been a big thing. for him a big priority the last four. years talking about jobs for people who. don't have a college degree trying to. move Democrats away from the idea that. they're Elites and that they only care. about people who are uh highly educated. and it's coming a time when the. demographics have changed the. Republicans have become the party of the. less educated voters and the Democrat. because from the party of the more. educated voters and he's trying to like.

recapture that old Democratic uh appeal. to workingclass. Americans those are his roots in fact. those are his roots right Scranton Joe. as he conceives himself. meanwhile we made the largest investment. KL and I in public safety ever now the. murder rate is so he just mentioned K. and I but here we are about half an hour. into this speech and he really hasn't. gotten around to talking about her yet. not yet he's made a passing references. to her but he hasn't yet given us the.

torch passing part of the. speech common committed to strengthening. legal immigration including protecting. dreamers and. more again in reference to kamla but. kind of but again in passing as a. subsidiary right kamla and I and then. moves on there's not we haven't yet. heard him talk about who she is what. she's done as vice president he's not. giving us a pitch no he will before it's. over but this is not a speech to yet.

about the brave service members who gave. their lives to this country he called. them suckers and losers who in the hell. does he think he is who does he think he. [Applause]. is there's no words for a person they. are not the words of person not worthy. of being commanderin-chief. period not then not now and not.

ever I mean that I mean that from the. bottom of my heart he's talked more. about Trump tonight so far than he has. about KLA Harris because I think he. expected to give a speech tonight making. the case against Trump right that he. wanted to make that case himself for his. own candidacy and in that sense a lot of. the speech is the speech he might have. given a month ago except that one key. line I accept your nomination. I.

me. folks I've Got 5 months left in my. presidency I've got a lot to. do I intend to get it. done it's the it's been the honor of my. lifetime to serve as your president I. love the job but I love my country more. I love my country.

more and all this talk about how I'm. angry with all those people said I. should step. down that's not. true I love my country more and we need. to preserve our. democracy in. 2024 we need you to. vote we need you to keep the.

Senate we need you to win back the House. of. Representatives and above all we need. you to beat Donald. [Applause]. Trump this was his case right this was. the case he made for himself KLA and. Tim KLA and. Tim he's endorsing them he's supporting. them but he hasn't really talked about. them we made incredible process progress.

we have more work to do and KL and Tim. will continue to take on corporate greed. and bring down cost of. food Peter is he actually passing the. torch. well he has changed the subject of the. sentence from I will to they will and. the rest of it is a lot of what he would. have said otherwise. exactly they will continue my policy. exactly exactly he's he's outlining what.

he would have done in effect and saying. KLA and Tim will be the ones to carry it. out selecting. kamla was the very first decision I made. before I became when I became our. nominee all right we're talking a little. bit about it that was the best decision. I made my whole. career okay he said it was the best. decision he ever made in picking conell. Harris as his vice president and you can. say it's a line but obviously he. understands right now that in some ways.

she's the most important thing to his. legacy because if she wins he will be. remembered for what he accomplished and. for set sacrificing and stepping aside. and if she loses people will say he hung. on too long through hubris or. stubbornness or pride and he didn't set. the Democrats up for. success in other words his legacy is. entirely dependent on her and What. Becomes of her in the next couple of. months absolutely right 10 weeks we'll. decide it. America America I gave my best to.

you so this is the final moment the book. ends of an extraordinary political. career whether you support him or not. it's an American. story who we are we're the United States. of America this is the line he always. uses to finish his.

speeches and there's nothing we cannot. do when we do it. together God bless you all and may God. protect our. [Music]. troops oh the crowd is. roaring he turns around looks behind him. to about 48 minutes y long speech it's. now well after midnight in the East y. but you know the crowd here was.

appreciative even if some of them began. to drift. away behind him and behind Jill are. Graphics uh saying thank you Joe and we. love. Joe here's KLA Harris KLA and her. husband Doug are joining. them they're embracing I love you so. much she just said KLA Harris you can. see her lips I love you so much she said.

and gave him a hug and then she just. said I love you again this is. effectively the torch being passed in. effect sending the signal to the this. call to the country and the world that. he sees her as his successor and it's. her party. now and if she can win in November it'll. be her white. house so he's clearing the stage the. next three nights of this convention all. in prime time will all. kamla harrris and the people who are. promoting kamla Harris Joe Biden won't.

be here anymore and it won't be his. convention oh and he's leaving the stage. Peter now he's leaving the stage. literally and you can argue. politically that's. it he's gone that's. it we'll be right back.

here's what else you should know today. in a very constructive meeting with. prime minister Netanyahu today he. confirmed to me that Israel accepts the. bridging proposal uh that he supports it. Israel accepted an important proposal. put forward by International mediators. including the US who were trying to. broker a last ditch plan for a ceasefire. between Israel and Hamas The Proposal. was described as a bridge toward a. larger peace agreement and Israel's.

support prompted American Secretary of. State Anthony blinkin to call on Hamas. to back the proposal as well the next. important step is for Hamas to say yes. and then in the coming days for all of. the expert negotiators to get together. to work on clear understandings on. implementing the agreement but it's. unclear whether Hamas will back the. bridge proposal Hamas has repeatedly. claimed that the ceasefire negotiations. have been slanted toward Israel and in a. sign of itep I ISM the group's military. Wing carried out a provocative suicide.

bombing in Tel Aviv on Sunday. night today's episode was produced by. Rob zipco Lindsay Garrison Carlos prido. Stella tan and Jessica Chung it was. edited by Rachel quer and Paige cowt. contains original music by Marian Lozano. Dan Powell Cory shuel and Rowan Neo and. was engineered by Chris Wood our theme.

music is by Jim brunberg and Ben Lanser. of. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. Sabrina taveri see you tomorrow. [Music].