Nothing comes before the party. That was the message when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris appeared on stage together in a modest community college hall in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, just a short drive from the White House, at lunchtime on Thursday.
The crowd cheered. On the sound system, Springsteen sang “We take care of our own”. Harris beamed and Biden pointed at all the old faces. It was a familiar scene but now the power base had shifted. The pair were there to speak about the White House initiative to lower the cost of prescription drugs. And now Harris led the way, taking the podium while the US president stood by her side.
“And of course I could speak all afternoon about the person I am standing on this stage with,” he said after acknowledging the Maryland governor, Wes Moore, and other dignitaries. The crowd exploded in a gratified cheer and chanted “Go Joe.” Harris continued: “Our extraordinary president Joe Biden … there’s a lot of love for our president and I think there’s a lot of reasons for that, including that few leaders in our nation have done more on so many issues including to expand access to affordable healthcare.” The people couldn’t contain themselves, again chanting: “Thank you Joe.”
This was Biden’s first public interaction since he arrived at the conclusion, on a turbulent Covid-wracked weekend at his beach house in Delaware, that he should step down from his candidacy. That terse announcement, delivered on Sunday, July 21st, was a lightning rod for the Democratic Party, thrusting Harris into the spotlight, unleashing a torrent of pent-up Democratic goodwill and optimism, and unhinging Donald Trump’s campaign in a way nobody thought possible.
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What has been striking, in the frantic days since, is just how quickly and completely Biden disappeared from the national conversation. Ironically, the one person who constantly and compulsively talks about him is Trump. The Harris message has been relentlessly forward-looking and intrigue revolved around the shortlist for her vice-presidential pick, leading to a new round of fascination when Tim Walz emerged as her choice.
Biden had, through his decision to step aside, made all of this happen but now he found himself in the strangest position imaginable: still president but part of an administration that is fading into the past before its completion date. There were reported murmurs that privately he wrestled with bouts of resentment against the Democratic power brokers who had, he felt, orchestrated the offstage manoeuvres to persuade him to leave, namely Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, his friend of 50 years.
In an interview with Robert Costa of CBS that took place in the Treaty Room of the White House last Sunday, Biden alluded to his sense that while he still believed he could have beaten Trump in November, the prevailing climate left his position all but impossible. “And I was concerned if I stayed in the race that would be the topic,” Biden said at one stage in that interview. “You’d be interviewing me about why did Nancy Pelosi say, why did so – and – and I thought it’d be a real distraction.”
So he removed himself. Now he was back in the public spotlight looking rested and sounding stronger than he had done in those wracked days of late June, when his age betrayed him. “Thank you, Kamala,” he said. “I love you guys too. I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time – the first time I sponsored a bill for Medicare to negotiate the price of drugs was in 1973 with a guy named Frank Church. Folks, I’ve an incredible partner. The progress we’ve made. And she’s going to make one hell of a president.”
It was no accidental thing, that allusion to 51 years ago: a salient reminder that he is the great survivor of American politics. Biden may be privately smarting but the small rally in Maryland was a prelude to the greeting that awaits him in Chicago when he speaks at the Democratic convention next Monday evening.
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