President Joe Biden on Wednesday
addressed the nation for the first time since dropping his reelection bid,
saying he decided to forgo personal ambition to save democracy in a sedate Oval
Office speech that contrasted with the rough-and-tumble campaign.
Shortly before his speech, Republican Donald Trump laid into Democratic rival Kamala Harris in his first rally since she replaced Biden atop the ticket, signaling a bare-knuckled campaign ahead of the November 5 election.
Trump branded Harris a "radical left lunatic" after she had dominated the campaign the two previous days with withering attacks on Trump that pointedly raised his felony convictions, his liability for sexual abuse, and fraud judgments against his business, charitable foundation and private university.
Biden said he believed he deserved
to be reelected based on his record during his first term, but his love of
country led him to step aside.
"I decided the best way forward
is to pass the torch to a new generation. That is the best way to unite our
nation," Biden said, after previously resisting calls from within the
party that he quit the race following his poor showing in a June 27 debate with
Trump.
Biden, at 81 the oldest president in
US history, was greeted by cheers, applause and music in the Rose Garden after
the address, as his staff had converged on the White House for a viewing party.
Trump was less kind, saying in a
post on his Truth Social platform that Biden's speech was "barely
understandable and sooo bad!"
After spending much of the campaign
attacking Biden as old and feeble, Trump, 78, now faces a younger candidate in
Harris, 59, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice
president.
Energizing many Democrats as
potentially the first woman to take the White House, Harris quickly
consolidated the party behind her, as her campaign said it had raised 126
million dollars since Sunday, with 64 percent of donors making their first
contribution of the 2024 campaign.
With nobody stepping up to challenge
her for the nomination, she won the backing of party delegates on Monday, a day
after Biden's announcement.
The next highly anticipated
development will be Harris' choice of a vice presidential candidate to counter Trump's selection
of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. Among the names being mentioned are Kentucky
Governor Andy Beshear and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
The Democratic National Committee's
rules committee agreed on Wednesday on a plan to formally nominate Harris as
soon as Aug. 1 - before the party's Aug. 19-22 convention in Chicago - with
Harris picking a running mate by Aug. 7.
Biden praised Harris as a strong
leader who would make an effective president.
"She's experienced, she's
tough, she's capable. She's been an incredible partner to me and a leader for
our country. Now the choice is up to you the American people," he said.
Trump tried to quash some of her
momentum in an aggressive speech at a campaign rally.
"I'm not gonna be nice!"
he told his cheering supporters in Charlotte, North Carolina, a battleground
state where voting preferences can swing to either side.
Harris on Tuesday showed her
willingness to throw a punch, contrasting her background as a prosecutor to his
record as a convicted felon.
"Do we want to live in a
country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear and
hate?," she asked during the speech in Milwaukee.