A Presidential Address for This Moment

‘We’ll teach them how to say goodbye.’ A dramatic way for Joe Biden to demonstrate his strength, and the nation’s. An imagined speech, with 120 days to go until the election.

In January, 2017, just before the Obama team turned power over to Donald Trump, members of the Hamilton cast performed at the White House. Here Lin-Manuel Miranda (right), as Hamilton, tries to talk Christopher Jackson, as Washington, out of his decision to voluntarily give up power when he could easily have held on.
Hamilton: “They will say you’re weak.” Washington: “No. We will show we’re strong…. We’ll teach them how to say goodbye.”

Here were some people listening in the front row that evening. Seven years later, Joe Biden could reflect on the event and the song. (Screenshots from Hamilton YouTube channel.)

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Address to the Nation

President Joe Biden

July 2024

My fellow Americans:

            I’d like to talk with you tonight about the faith that connects nearly all of us who share the blessing of calling ourselves Americans.

            That is a faith in the country’s past and a belief in its future. And a willingness, in the here and now, to do what we can—to fulfill our duty—to make our country stronger, prouder, fairer, greater.

            More open to opportunity. More equal under the law. More faithful to the values to which so many generations of Americans have pledged “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor,” as our founders put it nearly 250 years ago in the Declaration of Independence.

            Through my long life I’ve been conscious of my own good fortune, in having ancestors who came here from Ireland to make a new start. Like so many of us I’ve worked toward a world that can be brighter for our children, and their children, and the generations to come.

            The three great commitments of my life have been to family, faith, and country. Every day, in every moment of my public life—through the half-century since I first was elected to the US Senate, through the eight years in which I served as vice president, and most of all in these past four years when I’ve had the honor and responsibility of service as your president—I have thought about what I owed my family and my faith, but always and above all what I owed my country.

            I am immensely proud of what we have achieved together in these past four years. We, together, as Americans: The millions who voted for me. The millions who voted for my opponent. The millions who didn’t vote at all, or couldn’t. All of us who make up the national family, and the world community that depends on us. America at its finest has never been completed but has always been moving forward. In our economy, in our place in the world, in our attention to long-neglected problems, we have a long way to go but have been moving ahead.

            This progress must continue. The risks of moving backward are too great. And—to be blunt—the dangers at the moment are too grave, if control of America’s public institutions and its immense power, if its reputation abroad and its wellbeing at home, should fall back into the hands of someone whose loyalty extends only to himself.

            Knowing these stakes, I have thought carefully and clearly about the duty history asks of me at this crucial time—this ‘inflection point,’ as I often say. The duty that surmounts all others is making sure that leadership of the world’s greatest democracy remains with those who believe in democracy itself. We must guarantee that America is led by people who believe in America. Our nation has never had an election-denier and convicted felon in charge of its government. Nor one who disparages our military and courts and the other institutions that keep us strong. Who preaches division and promises retribution. It cannot risk doing so now.

            In recent weeks I have listened hard to critics, and supporters. I have talked with my family and staff and tried to look honestly at myself. I believe the record shows that I and my team were the right people, at the right time, for the challenges of the past four years. We did our duty, and I believe historians will say that we met the moment well.

            But I have come to realize that I can now best fulfill my duty in the fight for American values by passing the torch. I have always done my best, in my time. Now it is time for outstanding figures from our next generations—talented, idealistic, already highly experienced—to take their leading roles.

            We need the strongest candidates through the all-important next four months until the election. We need the most-qualified prospects for continued progress in the four years after that. We need to ensure that the next leaders of our country will be ones who appeal to the best in our national spirit, not pander to the worst.

            In this moment, my duty to the country and to history is to do everything I can to help such leaders prevail. Therefore I am tonight sharing with you my conclusion that I should no longer be a candidate in the coming election. I will remain on duty through every moment of my first term as your president. But I do not seek re-election to a second.

            This is a difficult and personally painful decision, for someone who has spent so much of his life in public office. But my family, my faith, and my belief in my country make me sure it is the right one. My commitment to this new course is total. I hope that all who have been so generous in their faith and support for me, especially my friends and allies in my own party, will understand. I hope they will wholeheartedly follow my lead.

            It is beyond question that my opponent should have made a similar decision long ago—or responsible members of his party should have made it for him. His ethical and temperamental failings are obvious. His contempt for our nation’s ideals is even more so. The threat he represents to our nation’s future and the free world’s values is enormous.

            But—despite the Supreme Court’s latest reckless ruling on presidential power—there is nothing I can do directly, or ethically, to stop him. All I can do is use every fiber of my being to see that a free electorate chooses a different path. 

           If the decision were solely up to me, I would naturally start with Vice President Harris, who has entirely fulfilled my belief that she was the right one to stand at my side, and next in line, on major decisions for our nation. I know something about the challenges of being a vice president. In these four years she has earned my absolute trust, gratitude, respect, and support.

            But I know that this next decision cannot be solely up to me. A democratic system requires democratic decisions, above all from the Democratic party. I am prepared to do all in my power to help Americans of my political party, and all parties, to come together in enthusiastic support of its next candidate.

            I owe this great country everything. I will continue to give it my very best. I do so this evening in committing to join you, my fellow Americans, next year in what the great Justice Louis Brandeis once called “the most important political office, that of private citizen.” And to using every moment between now and then to ensure that our next leaders are ones truest to our nation’s ideals.

            May God bless you all. And may God protect our troops and continue to guide our nation toward the light.