This is not the Democratic convention President Joe Biden envisioned just a month ago.
When he took the stage in Chicago, it would be the culmination of a half-century electoral career, a triumphant recognition of his fruitful first term and a hard-won affirmation of the belief that only he could defeat former President Donald Trump again.
But a week that Biden once saw as his political high point is now just hours away, overtaken by an extraordinary series of events that have revived the president’s party at the expense of his own ambitions. The deafening roar Biden receives at the United Center on Monday night will signal as much relief as reverence from a party grateful he is out of office, further signaling that Biden’s exit from the race is the only reason Democrats feel confident they have a shot at winning in November.
And when Vice President Kamala Harris delivers her speech later this week, Biden will already be out of sight and out of mind, on vacation, far from the celebration.
“He’s going to have an incredible reception,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), a staunch Biden ally, said ahead of his opening remarks at the convention on Monday, which will now effectively serve as the president’s passing of the torch. “But I’m sure it’s very complicated. I know it’s very complicated.”
The revamped convention that will dominate the political landscape for the next four days reflects the changing dynamics of a Democratic Party trying to celebrate Biden’s tenure but also eagerly preparing to put it behind him.
This week’s programming will be filled with conversations about Biden’s accomplishments, albeit carefully presented as joint accomplishments with Harris, according to aides familiar with the planning.
Officials on Monday want to remind Americans in particular that Biden inherited a nation reeling from a pandemic three and a half years ago and that he has made progress as he steered the U.S. through a confluence of crises — from repairing ties abroad to curbing unauthorized border crossings and crime at home, while enacting a sweeping economic agenda.
Biden’s own speech — still being revised in the days leading up to the convention — will also include the same list of accomplishments that aides have often compared favorably to the legacy of former President Lyndon Johnson. Biden and his senior advisers have been fixated on the finishing touches to his career in the weeks since he withdrew from the race, and have seen Harris’ run as a final critical chapter in Biden’s history — and one that hinges on defeating Trump and becoming the nation’s first female president.
To that end, Biden is expected to deliver a stark warning about the dangers of another Trump term in order to make a forceful case for his vice president, aides said, touting Harris as an indispensable governing partner more than ready to take over the Oval Office. Harris is expected to attend Biden’s speech.
“As he likes to say, it’s a tipping point — a tipping point for our country and for his presidency and his career,” said Ron Klain, a longtime Biden confidant and his former White House chief of staff. “He made a decision [to bow out]and now he must make that decision successfully.”
Biden’s wife, first lady Jill Biden, is also expected to speak at Congress on Monday evening.
Still, there is little doubt among Biden’s closest aides and allies that he enters the week with mixed emotions, according to five people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Biden has been more relaxed in public lately, joking about his age and his need for a new job. Privately, those who spoke to him over the past week suggested that it sometimes seemed as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He is particularly proud of how quickly Harris was able to mobilize the support and enthusiasm of the party, and sees it as a vindication of his decision to endorse her immediately.
That has fueled his frustration with the way he was pushed off the top of the ticket, taking aim at former President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — and especially former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the people said. But Biden has continued to insist to confidants that he could have won in November, even as he acknowledges the challenges were daunting and could have divided the party.
“Joe Biden has been the same person for 50 years — it’s just the level of caffeine that’s changed,” said one Democrat close to the White House. “The fire in his belly is still there, he’s still very ambitious.”
That same ambivalence is shared by his allies, who chafe at the idea that many of the Democrats singing Biden’s praises this week are the same Democrats who, just weeks ago, painted him as stubborn and past his prime as they tried to force him out of the race.
They remain frustrated with Obama, who did not come to Biden’s defense as pressure mounted to drop out — and he did not directly tell Biden to reconsider. And few expect the president to reconcile anytime soon with Pelosi, a once-close ally who has made only a half-hearted attempt to conceal her role in ending his candidacy.
“There are significant tensions there,” said a Democrat familiar with the Biden-Pelosi relationship.
A Biden aide stressed that the president does not share these specific frustrations with Obama’s behavior. In a statement, he said Biden “never said that.”
“The president is focused on nothing but getting as much done as he can in the next five months and helping the vice president get elected so that all the progress we’ve made is secured,” the adviser said.
Biden is unlikely to dwell on the details of the election during his appearance. He doesn’t want to distract Harris or undermine the unity of the party, which has dramatically changed the course of the race with less than three months to go.
Harris enters the convention ahead or tied with Trump in several key states, garnering in a matter of weeks a level of support Biden hasn’t seen since the campaign began in earnest earlier this year.
Still, there’s little appetite to stick around for a party that’s no longer about him and risk distracting from Harris. Biden will instead leave for California shortly after his speech, where he’ll vacation for the rest of the week as the next generation of Democratic leaders take turns setting the stage.
“It’s certainly going to be a mixed bag,” said former Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), a current White House adviser. “You don’t voluntarily step away from the most powerful position in the world without some sense of what might have been.”
“But based on my conversations with him,” Jones added, “I think he’s very happy with where he is and his place in history.”
Since the end of his campaign, Biden has stressed to aides that he wants his final months to be as active as any other period of his administration. Privately, he has outlined a four-point agenda aimed at hammering out a series of final domestic policy initiatives and achieving a ceasefire in the Middle East. Biden sees this as a potential high point on the road to his exit.
Biden has also asked his team to look for new policy options that can be implemented in the coming months or lay the groundwork for action in a next administration.
But on Monday night, Democrats said the moment will focus on what Biden has done — and the deep appreciation for his eventual willingness to step aside.
The president is expected to receive a boisterous welcome from a convention audience that has swelled since Harris took over. He is likely to be hailed by party leaders as one of the most productive presidents in modern times, a Democratic icon for defeating Trump in 2020 and a politician of rare courage for choosing to step aside for the good of the party.
“It’s going to be emotional,” said a senior Democrat close to party leadership. “People are going to cry.”
But when asked whether anyone will regret pushing Biden aside, the Democrat was unequivocal.
“No.”
