Can Obama Run Again in 2020

Watch Obama's Full Speech at the Democratic National Convention

The very future of our democracy is at stake, one-time President Barack Obama said Wednesday nighttime, imploring voters to oust President Trump.

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Former President Barack Obama delivered biting criticism of President Trump, comparing Mr. Trump'due south use of the White House to a reality evidence. Credit Credit... Democratic National Convention

Aug. 19, 2020

Former President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned spoken communication on Wed to the Democratic National Convention in support of his political party'south presidential nominee, Joseph R. Biden Jr., praising him as a human of experience, character, empathy and resilience, and urging the nation to come up together to oust President Trump, saying democracy's very being is in jeopardy.

Calling the consequences of Mr. Trump's failures astringent — "170,000 Americans dead, millions of jobs gone, our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished and our democratic institutions threatened like never before" — Mr. Obama issued a call to action, imploring Americans to become behind Mr. Biden and his vice-presidential running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California.

"What nosotros practice these next 76 days volition echo through generations to come," Mr. Obama said, urging all Americans to vote.

"This night, I am asking you to believe in Joe and Kamala's power to lead this country out of dark times and build information technology back better," he said on the convention'southward tertiary night, also calling upon Americans to "comprehend your ain responsibleness equally citizens — to make certain that the bones tenets of our commonwealth endure Because that'south what'southward at pale right at present. Our democracy."

Mr. Obama, adopting a tone of urgency and speaking directly to his young man Americans, delivered his speech communication from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia in what the party said was an effort to illustrate the high stakes voters confront in this election.

Repeating a theme from a spoken language delivered by his wife, Michelle Obama, the former starting time lady, on Monday night, Mr. Obama said that Mr. Trump was but incapable of being president, issuing a stunning rebuke of his successor.

"I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might evidence some interest in taking the job seriously," Mr. Obama said. "That he might come to feel the weight of the part. And notice some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care. Just he never did."

"Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't," he said.

Mr. Obama offered an unflinching criticism of the president, arguing emphatically that Mr. Trump had driveling his presidential power. "No i, including the president, is to a higher place the law," Mr. Obama said. "And no public official, including the president, should use the office to enrich themselves or their supporters."

Much of Mr. Obama'due south address was devoted to praise for Mr. Biden, with the former president offer up his endorsement as a letter of recommendation for the man he had once picked to pace in and fill his shoes if the need arose.

Listen to 'The Daily': Joe Biden's xxx-Year Quest

The former vice president twice failed to secure the Democratic nomination. Now he has succeeded, how much will his by mistakes touch his bid for the White Business firm?

transcript

transcript

Listen to 'The Daily': Joe Biden's 30-Year Quest

Hosted by Michael Barbaro, produced by Andy Mills, Rachel Quester and Robert Jimison and edited past MJ Davis Lin and Lisa Tobin

The old vice president twice failed to secure the Democratic nomination. Now he has succeeded, how much will his past mistakes touch his bid for the White House?

[music]

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is "The Daily." This evening when Joe Biden formally accepts the Democratic Party'due south nomination for president, it volition be the culmination of a 30-twelvemonth quest and ii failed runs for the office. My colleague, Matt Flegenheimer, on a delayed victory that looks cypher like Biden had planned.

It'south Thursday, August 20.

archived recording

[Auspicious] America needs someone who can inspire once more in our people faith and trust in our government. America needs someone with a heart.

michael barbaro

Matt, take us back to when Joe Biden first runs for president. Where does that story start?

matt flegenheimer

That story starts at a train station in Wilmington, Delaware in June of 1987.

archived recording

And we cheers, Delaware, for giving us that person, the adjacent president of the United States, Joe Biden.

matt flegenheimer

He'due south coming in the cease of the second term for Ronald Reagan.

archived recording (joe biden)

All right, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you!

matt flegenheimer

He is in his 40s and —

archived recording (joe biden)

I tell you lot today that America is a nation at risk.

matt flegenheimer

— he is kind of a generational modify candidate.

archived recording (joe biden)

The blaring call from my generation is not 'information technology is our plow,' merely rather, 'information technology is our moment of obligation and opportunity.'

matt flegenheimer

He uses the words my generation quite a bit. This idea that after Reagan, after a lot of stodgy older men —

archived recording (joe biden)

We literally have a chance to shape the future, to put our postage on the confront and character of America. This is non merely history. Information technology is our destiny. [Applause]

matt flegenheimer

That it was time for a kind of breath of fresh air. And he was somebody who was going to bring that.

archived recording (joe biden)

We need a new kind of presidential leadership, a presidential leadership that is prepared to tell the difficult truths and lead this country.

matt flegenheimer

There'south non a signature proposal he's running on. He's really non a 12-point program kind of candidate.

michael barbaro

That sounds like a pretty vague pitch to be making to voters.

matt flegenheimer

Information technology is kind of vague. And he really struggled with articulating a rationale beyond wanting to exist president.

archived recording (joe biden)

Ladies and gentlemen, there's much more to say. Merely I don't want to trespass on my time.

matt flegenheimer

It was not e'er clear exactly why he was running.

archived recording (joe biden)

Government can practice many things. Only in the concluding analysis, government tin can human activity little more than as a catalyst. Nosotros must need more of ourselves, for nothing volition suffice short of a wholesale delivery of an entire society.

michael barbaro

And why do you retrieve he was running?

matt flegenheimer

I think he wanted to be president. He is somebody who, past his ain account, talked well-nigh that in class schoolhouse. He's somebody was elected to the Senate at 29, took part shortly thereafter when he turned 30. And this is a dream he had chased, in some measure, from the moment that he entered public function. At the same fourth dimension, he also looked around at the fields in '88 and was unimpressed. They were sort of known derisively — at the field at that point on the Democratic side — equally the seven dwarfs. It was sort of the put down in the press. And he looked at that group and said, "Why not Joe Biden?"

michael barbaro

And when he enters this race, who is Joe Biden in this moment? What is he really known for, given his career up to that moment?

matt flegenheimer

So despite having been in the Senate at this point for going on 3 terms just about, he's really still known nationally best for being a kind of tragic effigy. He was elected to the Senate in 1972. The post-obit month, his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash. His two sons were injured. And he was immediately sort of identified in the public consciousness as a effigy of tremendous sympathy and as someone who had been left to mourn in public by dint of his profession.

michael barbaro

Then his early career in Congress is very much divers past this personal tragedy, as much as any legislative accomplishment?

matt flegenheimer

That'due south certainly truthful.

michael barbaro

So how does this campaign in '87 — how does it get?

matt flegenheimer

Information technology goes fine for a while. He is somebody who is doing very well in fundraising early on. He was cartoon crowds even earlier he entered the race in some of the early states he was visiting. And I think a lot of figures inside the party saw him as very formidable. And then —

archived recording

Now to the controversy that has suddenly erupted around the Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden.

matt flegenheimer

— he gets himself into trouble.

archived recording

The charge that he has plagiarized parts of his speeches.

matt flegenheimer

On a couple of occasions, he's accused of lifting the words of others.

archived recording (joe biden)

And I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the kickoff in his family ever to get to a academy? Why is that my wife, who's sitting out at that place in the audience, is the first in her family to e'er become to college?

matt flegenheimer

The virtually memorable is at a fence in Iowa —

archived recording (joe biden)

Is information technology because our fathers and mothers were not bright? Is it considering I'1000 the start Biden in a 1000 generations to get a college and a graduate caste, that I was smarter than the residuum?

matt flegenheimer

In Iowa, he is caught using the words of Neil Kinnock, who is a British political leader —

archived recording (neil kinnock)

Why am I the first Kinnock in a m generations to be able to go to university? What is Glenys the starting time woman in her family in a k generations to exist able to get to university? Was information technology because all our predecessors were thick?

matt flegenheimer

— and passing them off every bit his own.

archived recording (joe biden)

Is it considering they didn't work difficult? My ancestors, who worked in the coal mines in Northeast Pennsylvania then would come up afterwards 12 hours and play football game for 4 hours?

archived recording (neil kinnock)

Was information technology because they were weak? Those people who had worked 8 hours underground and then come and play football?

matt flegenheimer

He's quoted Kinnock before on the trail and cited him appropriately. In this instance, he just says the words equally if they are extemporaneous Joe Biden words. Does not mention Kinnock, no citation.

archived recording (joe biden)

No. It'south non considering they weren't every bit smart. Information technology's not considering it didn't piece of work every bit hard. It's considering they didn't have a platform upon which to stand.

archived recording (neil kinnock)

It was because at that place was no platform upon which they could stand up. [Applause]

matt flegenheimer

Then it gets picked up in the printing.

archived recording

Biden seemed to exist claiming Kinnock's vision and life as his own.

archived recording (joe biden)

I should take said, "to paraphrase Neil Kinnock."

archived recording

The problem here is that Senator Biden told his audience he'd just been thinking near these things. And he failed to give whatsoever credit at all to his famous British speechwriter.

matt flegenheimer

So this moment begets other moments, unpleasant moments for Joe Biden.

archived recording i

CBS News constitute a tape of a second instance.

archived recording two

Biden had appropriated a famous litany from the belatedly Robert Kennedy virtually what the gross national production cannot measure out.

archived recording (joe biden)

It cannot measure the health of our children —

archived recording (robert kennedy)

The wellness of our children —

archived recording (joe biden)

— the quality of their education —

archived recording (robert kennedy)

— the quality of their education —

archived recording (joe biden)

— the joy of their play.

archived recording (robert kennedy)

— or the joy of their play.

matt flegenheimer

There is a story on his record in constabulary schoolhouse —

archived recording 1

Joseph Biden admitted today that he committed plagiarism when he was in law school. He said it was a fault, but that information technology was unintentional.

archived recording 2

He quoted 5 pages of someone else'southward piece of work without proper citation.

matt flegenheimer

Then —

archived recording (voter)

Question, what law school did you nourish? And where did yous place in that class?

matt flegenheimer

— a video from the spring circulates of him —

archived recording (voter)

And the other question is, could yous quickly —

archived recording (joe biden)

I retrieve I probably have a much higher IQ than you exercise, I doubtable.

matt flegenheimer

— essentially telling a voter in New Hampshire who asked about his bookish history, "I probably accept a much higher I.Q. than you do, I doubtable."

archived recording (joe biden)

I went to police school on a full academic scholarship, the simply one in my class to have a full academic scholarship.

matt flegenheimer

And he goes on to exaggerate his record in law schoolhouse, maxim things similar, I was the only one in my class to get a total academic scholarship, and other things that turned out not to be truthful. And that combination of both the exaggeration and the sort of belligerence with a member of the electorate did not sit well when that clip began circulating in a wider style. And this sort of snowballs unto itself.

archived recording (joe biden)

If and when I've always quoted anyone without maxim this is their quote, it'southward either because, in fact, it's been clearly known past everyone what it is, or I honestly did not know I was quoting somebody else.

matt flegenheimer

He has ever been dogged past this idea, and it'southward an insecurity he'southward talked nigh a lot himself, that he was not necessarily a policy heavyweight or a brilliant thinker. He didn't go to an Ivy League schoolhouse. And there was something of a scrap on his shoulder as a result of this. And he actually thinks he'southward been disrespected in the national media, not taken seriously enough. There's a cliche on Capitol Colina about workhorses and show horses. And the perception among a lot of people watching him is that he'south a testify horse.

archived recording (joe biden)

I took the cases out of the law review commodity and the footnotes out of the law review commodity. And I idea what I was doing, honestly, was the right way to do it.

matt flegenheimer

And so he holds a kind of stop-the-bleeding press briefing at the Capitol, trying to essentially reset his campaign and stabilize himself every bit a candidate.

archived recording (joe biden)

And I footnoted information technology.

matt flegenheimer

And it does non go well.

archived recording (joe biden)

I was incorrect. Only I was not malevolent in any way.

matt flegenheimer

He comes off defensive, defiant.

archived recording (joe biden)

That I did not intentionally move to mislead anybody. I didn't.

matt flegenheimer

And you tin see him really start to see his initial case, which was and then rooted in his ain personal integrity, showtime to fall away. And when that falls away, there's not a whole lot left. Because in that location was not a really strong policy undergirding this campaign in the first place.

archived recording

[PRESS Conference Chatter]

matt flegenheimer

By the fall, there is some other matter happening.

archived recording (ronald reagan)

With keen pleasure and deep respect for his boggling abilities, I today denote my intention to nominate United States Court of Appeals Guess Robert H. Bork.

matt flegenheimer

Reagan nominates Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. And there is immediately an endeavour on the Democratic side to figure out how they can best preclude a securely conservative gauge from reaching the court. And Biden, who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate, is at the helm of that attempt.

archived recording (joe biden)

Those in favor of the Bork nomination will vote aye. Those opposed volition vote no. The clerk will call the roll.

matt flegenheimer

So his squad gets together.

archived recording (clerk)

Mr. Byrd?

archived recording (robert byrd)

No.

archived recording (clerk)

Mr. Metzenbaum?

archived recording (howard metzenbaum)

No.

matt flegenheimer

And one of his elevation advisers in the Senate substantially says to him —

archived recording (clerk)

Mr. DeConcini?

archived recording (dennis deconcini)

No.

matt flegenheimer

If we lose the Bork fight at this bespeak —

archived recording (clerk)

Mr. Simon?

archived recording (paul simon)

No.

matt flegenheimer

— it will be considering of us. And if we win, it'll be in spite of usa.

archived recording (clerk)

Mr. Thurmond?

archived recording (strom thurmond)

Aye.

matt flegenheimer

And that really resonates with him. He sees his day job as so essential, non only because he ostensibly cares about the constituency he serves, but considering he has been then ridiculed as a effigy of less than considerable substance. A major Supreme Court hearing is quite the forum to button dorsum against that idea.

archived recording

Mr. Hatch?

archived recording (orrin hatch)

Aye.

archived recording

Mr. Simpson?

archived recording (alan simpson)

Yeah.

matt flegenheimer

And so months earlier anybody fifty-fifty gets a chance to weigh in at the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, Joe Biden is out.

archived recording

Mr. Grassley?

archived recording (chuck grassley)

Yeah.

matt flegenheimer

He makes the determination himself. He's going back to the Senate to finish the Bork fight.

archived recording

Mr. Humphrey?

archived recording (gordon humphrey)

Aye.

archived recording

Mr. Biden?

archived recording (joe biden)

No.

matt flegenheimer

And they win.

archived recording

The Robert Bork nomination concluded today. The Senate voted by an overwhelming 58 to 42 margin to reject —

matt flegenheimer

Bork is not confirmed. And Biden has a lot to do with that. And it was a major victory for him.

michael barbaro

So in order to protect his Senate career, he feels like he needs to end his bid for president.

matt flegenheimer

He feels similar he needs to end his bid for president. And at that bespeak, it is not at all clear that his bid for president would accept gone particularly well, anyway.

archived recording (joe biden)

Mr. President, I'd like to brand a few points here if I may.

matt flegenheimer

He goes back to the Senate and really resolves to kind of put his caput down and do the piece of work of a senator, and aspires to this sort of legacy of some of the lions of the Senate that he has gotten to know — fellow Democrats, like a Ted Kennedy, and as well Republicans who he'd really grown close to over the years.

archived recording (joe biden)

So allow me tell you, if your moral center is oil, I understand you. If your moral eye is humanity, there is no comparison the restoration of Kuwait with ending of genocide in Bosnia.

matt flegenheimer

He is actually pushing this kind of muscular foreign policy idea that America should be a force for good in the world.

archived recording (joe biden)

And what is the message we send to the earth if nosotros stand past and we say, we'll allow it go along to happen here in this place, but information technology is not in our interest?

matt flegenheimer

He is pushing legislation around violence against women, pushing the criminal offense bill in the mid-'90s under President Clinton.

archived recording (joe biden)

One of the things I want to do in addition to ending the crime is terminate the political carnage that goes on when we talk about offense.

matt flegenheimer

He is seen as a particularly capable bipartisan figure.

archived recording (joe biden)

Crime is not Democrat or Republican.

matt flegenheimer

He talks near never questioning anybody's motive — maybe their politics, never their motive. And he is seen as kind of an honest broker among Republicans, certainly in this period.

archived recording (joe biden)

And I think there's a consensus amid Republicans in that. Old barbed wire Republican conservatives [INAUDIBLE] want to hang them high, fifty-fifty those folks are saying, hey, we've got to deal with the root crusade of this.

matt flegenheimer

Even if information technology earns him the disdain sometimes from the more liberal groups.

archived recording (joe biden)

And liberal Democrats who used to say, "Let's look at the sociological underpinnings of why this occurred and nosotros accept to" — they're now saying, hey, look, we've got to have back the streets. We'll make that fight later.

matt flegenheimer

But he really makes a particularly concerted try in these years when he is not running for president to bring the kind of heft to the twenty-four hours job that voters didn't necessarily see in 1988.

michael barbaro

So when does Biden decide in the midst of this pretty successful engagement in the Senate that he's going to try to seek the presidency again?

matt flegenheimer

It's something he never lets become of fully. Then he thinks about it in 2004, as George Westward. Bush is seeking re-election. Decides against it in the cease. But '08 is the time when he decides —

archived recording (joe biden)

Friends, today I filed the necessary papers to become candidate for President of the United States.

matt flegenheimer

— he's fix for the second fourth dimension.

archived recording (joe biden)

And along with my wife Jill and my children Fellow, Hunter and Ashley, we really look frontward to being out there on the campaign trail with you and getting a chance to meet you.

matt flegenheimer

And he's running as a very dissimilar candidate, evidently. He's been in the Senate for more than 30 years. It's his 6th term. And he brings with that a set of experiences he didn't have in 1988.

archived recording (joe biden)

I've spent the last four years traveling back and forth to Iraq, meeting with our soldiers, our generals and our diplomats, and trying my level best to convince the president to change course.

matt flegenheimer

This is a moment of unpopular wars going on in the country. And he is somebody, co-ordinate to his pitch, who actually understands those challenges because of the work that he's done in the Senate since his last campaign.

archived recording (joe biden)

The side by side president of the United States is going to have to be prepared to immediately footstep in and act without hesitation to finish our involvement in Republic of iraq without further destabilizing the Middle East and the rest of the world.

matt flegenheimer

But as it turns out, that kind of experience did non necessarily resonate widely with voters for a whole host of reasons.

archived recording

[CHANTING] Obama! Obama! Obama! Obama!

matt flegenheimer

For one —

archived recording

Obama! Obama!

matt flegenheimer

— he is a figure who is running up against a historic moment —

archived recording (barack obama)

Thank you!

matt flegenheimer

— in this Democratic primary.

archived recording (barack obama)

Generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed —

matt flegenheimer

Barack Obama is running.

archived recording (barack obama)

— that sums upwards the spirit of a people. Yes, we can. [Auspicious] Yes, nosotros can.

matt flegenheimer

Hillary Clinton is running.

archived recording (hillary clinton)

The question isn't whether nosotros tin can keep America'southward promise, it's whether we will keep America'due south promise. [Cheering]

matt flegenheimer

And despite the relative inexperience in the Senate as his colleagues, the non-historic nature of the Biden campaign as a white man in his 60s really feels out of step with the times when fix against these dynamic and compelling and peculiarly history-making candidates against him. At the aforementioned time, we see flashes of the '88 entrada Biden come up to the fore very early on in this race.

archived recording (joe biden)

We've got the showtime sort of mainstream African-American —

archived recording

Yeah.

archived recording (joe biden)

— who is articulate and bright and clean and a prissy looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man.

archived recording

Yeah.

matt flegenheimer

He also only had a lot of these moments —

archived recording (joe biden)

I spent concluding summertime going through the Black sections of my town holding rallies in parks, trying to get Black men to sympathize it is not unmanly to wear a condom, getting women to understand they tin can say no, getting people in the position where testing matters.

matt flegenheimer

— these moments of sounding out of touch in kind of a cringe-worthy style. Sort of an uncle at a family unit gathering saying something that he probably shouldn't.

archived recording (joe biden)

I got tested for AIDS. I know Barack got tested for AIDS. There's no shame in existence tested for AIDS. It's an important thing. Because the fact of the thing is, in the customs, in the communities engaged in denial —

matt flegenheimer

And on the policy side, quite frankly on the most important strange policy result of the solar day, despite his experience in the Senate that he touted, he's on the reverse side of Barack Obama. He voted for the Iraq state of war. Obama did not. I of the points that Barack Obama made throughout is: I may non have the feel on paper, but I practise have the wisdom to avoid a blunder such as that.

michael barbaro

Hm. Then at merely the moment when Biden thought that he had proven he was the workhorse and the steady hand and the experienced kind of gray beard of the Senate, that turned out to be the wrong kind of gear up of experiences for the Autonomous electorate.

matt flegenheimer

Information technology just did not fit the moment. And at that place was really never a moment in that campaign when he felt like a especially serious threat to take the nomination. The voters of Iowa render their verdict. And he drops out almost immediately thereafter. But unlike '88, he really doesn't embarrass himself either, in the finish. He is seen as a sort of affable, knowledgeable peer amid his rivals. But he does have to exit the race.

michael barbaro

So here we have another failed presidential bid. And for the second time, Biden doesn't really get all that far in these Democratic primaries.

matt flegenheimer

No. Two campaigns, zero states won. But what he does go out of this race is —

archived recording (barack obama)

For months I've searched for a leader to finish this journey alongside me.

matt flegenheimer

— actually earning the respect of the eventual nominee, Barack Obama.

archived recording (barack obama)

Today I have come dorsum to Springfield to tell you that I've found that leader. [Cheering]

matt flegenheimer

And then when the time comes to pick a running mate —

archived recording (barack obama)

A human with a distinguished tape, a human being with cardinal decency. And that man is Joe Biden. [CHEERING]

matt flegenheimer

— Barack Obama chooses Joe Biden.

Biden at this point is non seen as particularly probable to seek the presidency once again. He's manifestly in his 60s. He's run twice and failed. But we now know there'south a conversation that the two of them have as he'south offering Biden the running mate slot. And Obama says to him, this is in Biden's telling, I hope you see this as the capstone to your career. And Biden says back to him, and non the tombstone.

michael barbaro

Mm.

matt flegenheimer

But that is set aside for the moment. He goes off into the Obama campaign. And of form, Obama and Biden win that election.

archived recording (barack obama)

I want to give thanks my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his eye and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton, the vice president-elect of the The states, Joe Biden. [Auspicious]

michael barbaro

We'll be right back.

And then simply equally subsequently 1988, when Biden threw himself into the office of being a senator, after he loses that '08 race, he really pours himself into the vice presidency in this instance.

matt flegenheimer

Absolutely. He sees himself equally the sort of ultimate lieutenant for the beginning Black president and takes very seriously the idea that they are full partners. He wants to be the terminal person who Obama talks to before making a major decision. He wants to be in the room where those tough calls are happening. And I do think there is a parallel to that menstruation in his Senate life between these presidential runs. He definitely both absorbs this idea that he should be doing the job he has and not the job that he might aspire to and seems to believe information technology. And there is certainly a belief among those in the Obama White House that he is non necessarily giving up on those ambitions down the line. Simply he is non seen equally somebody positioning himself for a run either.

michael barbaro

And is that really the case, Matt? Because my sense is that by the time Obama is ready to leave role, that ember that is Joe Biden's perpetual want to seek the presidency is glowing pretty brightly.

matt flegenheimer

Information technology is. And information technology probably never went out. You don't remember about such things in grade schoolhouse and relinquish them in your 70s.

michael barbaro

Mhm.

matt flegenheimer

But a couple of things happened late in Obama's second term. And one of them is political. Hillary Clinton's running for president once more. She is effectively clearing the field, it seems. A lot of the Obama operation is already lining upwards behind her. Barack Obama makes articulate that he sees her as a pretty suitable heir, potentially. And then tragically, there is the death of Young man Biden, Joe's eldest son, his political heir to the would exist Biden dynasty in Delaware. He was the land attorney general. And information technology was wrenching. This was someone who had already been left to grieve then publicly with such raw emotion early in his Senate life. And for the second time, he is burying a child. Then this was just a particularly searing moment for all those who know and love Joe Biden. And through some combination of the rawness of that mourning and how far down the road the Clinton entrada had already gotten, he opts non to run.

archived recording (joe biden)

Good morning, folks. Please, please, sit down downward.

matt flegenheimer

He stands in the Rose Garden beside President Obama. And in that location'southward a moment at the start of that printing briefing that he says —

archived recording (joe biden)

Mr. President, thank you for lending me the Rose Garden for a minute.

archived recording (barack obama)

Information technology's a pretty overnice place.

matt flegenheimer

And there is this sense watching that, that it was non a place that Joe Biden would have to himself downward the line, that this was probably his final window to run.

archived recording (joe biden)

As my family and I have worked through the grieving process, I've said all along what I've said time and again to others, that it may very well be that that process, by the fourth dimension nosotros get through it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president. That it might close. I've ended it has airtight.

matt flegenheimer

Information technology was a poignant reminder of all that he had been through prior, and how he had come to be seen every bit this kind of avatar of trauma and resilience and how central that was to his public arc throughout his career. And to have this bookend this time as vice president was something that, to Democrats and Republicans, just felt unfair.

michael barbaro

And I remember, Matt, thinking after watching that news briefing that this was his last take a chance to run for president. I remember a lot of people idea that. But information technology turned out that his presidential aspirations did not end in the Rose Garden that day. He ran again in 2020. And after a roller coaster campaign in which he was upwardly and he was down and for a moment it looked like he was nearly written off, he prevails. And just a couple of nights ago, he is formally designated the Autonomous Party's nominee for president. And and so I'm curious, in your heed, what he had going for him in 2020 that he didn't accept in those previous two runs.

matt flegenheimer

Well, in some ways it'due south a culmination of those runs and all that he had experienced in the fourth dimension since. He is fusing the kind of personal integrity argument from his '88 campaign — his own character, his own decency — and the experience case he's making in '08, that he is somebody who has been in that location, has seen it and knows what to practise.

michael barbaro

Mhm.

matt flegenheimer

And it turns out that that combination becomes pretty compelling in 2020. He is somebody who, through the context of this moment, plant a rationale. His advisers would say he met the moment. In some ways, the moment dictated information technology. He ran a entrada in the primary premised not peculiarly on policy or ideology, only on the idea that the country is better than this and that this president has to be defeated.

archived recording (joe biden)

My swain Americans, there are moments in our history so grim, so heartrending that they're forever fixed in each of our hearts, shared grief.

matt flegenheimer

And his campaign argument, in some ways, hinges almost exclusively on this thought that he is a figure of unique perspective.

archived recording (joe biden)

Today is one of those moments. 100,000 lives take now been lost to this virus.

matt flegenheimer

In this moment of a pandemic, of a reckoning over racial justice, sort of overlapping crises and traumas —

archived recording (joe biden)

I retrieve I know what you're feeling. Y'all feel like you're beingness sucked into a black hole in the center of your chest. It's suffocating.

matt flegenheimer

He is holding himself out every bit somebody who knows how to overcome such things, considering he has.

archived recording (joe biden)

This nation grieves with you lot. Take some solace from the fact we all grieve with you.

matt flegenheimer

It'southward non every bit if his biography wasn't compelling in past races. But it's so much more resonant in a moment of commonage grief in the country and of such tremendous trauma and upheaval in people's daily lives. Only at the same time —

archived recording (joe biden)

If you take a problem figuring out whether y'all're for me or Trump, then y'all own't Black.

matt flegenheimer

— he is still the Joe Biden that audiences have seen and occasionally chafed at seeing over the years. He is decumbent to gaffes. He had a handful of interactions with voters on the trail during the chief —

archived recording (joe biden)

You're a damn liar, man. That's non true. And no one has ever said that. No ane has heard that —

matt flegenheimer

— that I recollect his entrada instantly regretted. Sort of confrontational, evocative of that 'I accept a college I.Q. than y'all exercise' moment from '88.

archived recording (joe biden)

You said I set up up my son to work in an oil company. Isn't that what y'all said? Get your words straight, Jack.

matt flegenheimer

He's liable to get carried away in forepart of a oversupply, to exaggerate, to misstate something on the debate stage. There is no question that those weaknesses persist.

archived recording (joe biden)

And I can get things done. That's why I'm running. And you want to bank check my shape on let's do push ups together, man. Let's run. Let's do whatever you want to practice.

matt flegenheimer

And then in his first run in '88, he talked most how he saw presidential history in cycles. Yous had these kind of bursts of progress and upheaval, followed by these moments of correction where voters wanted to choose a candidate who could let the country catch its breath. And the implication then was that he was that candidate, that he was the generational alter, the burst of progress. And the implication now is that he is the figure who can allow America catch its breath. And there is such a conspicuous passage of fourth dimension in that. He is not running on generational change as a 77-twelvemonth-old human being —

michael barbaro

Right.

matt flegenheimer

— in the way that he was 32 years ago. And that passage of fourth dimension is evident. You can hear information technology in his speeches. You can see it in his public appearances. He has been through a lot. He has done a lot. He has earned that agedness at this phase of his career.

michael barbaro

Matt, I wonder how it volition feel for Joe Biden tonight, later on all these failed attempts, after all his personal tragedy, to finally have this moment go far some 30 years after he first tries for it. And I'1000 sure, 30 years of thinking about trying for it over again. He will walk out, I guess, to a podium. This is virtual. It will be weird. And he will take, at terminal, the Democratic party'due south nomination for president. How is that going to experience for him?

matt flegenheimer

I recall similar and so much in his political career, it'll be bittersweet. I mean, think about the scene. He volition not be in an arena in Milwaukee. He will be at a remote location in Wilmington. He volition not accept a crowd of people chanting his proper name. No balloons, no "We love Joe." And I think that reflects the moment but is likewise such a spectacular come down from the vision of this that he might accept had. He's been thinking near the presidency for decade later on decade.

archived recording (joe biden)

Today, I denote my candidacy for president of the Usa. [Auspicious]

matt flegenheimer

And so much of information technology won't wait similar he expected it to in this moment of triumph.

archived recording (joe biden)

God bless you and thank you.

matt flegenheimer

Both superficially, because of the convention fix, and substantially, most powerfully for him because Swain Biden won't be there. In every version of this speech that he's imagined in his life up until Beau's death, I'chiliad sure Beau Biden in the wings of the loonshit and helping him gear up the speech is what he had in listen. And if there's whatsoever throughline to his public life, it's this commingling of tragedy and triumph. And in some ways, information technology'southward a fitting coda to have him accepting the nomination in a way so radically different from what he had hoped, and so colored by the national grief and gloom of this moment and of the country that he hopes to lead.

michael barbaro

Matt, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

matt flegenheimer

Thanks and then much for having me.

michael barbaro

We'll be right back.

Hither's what else yous need to know today.

archived recording (hillary clinton)

The forenoon after the last election, I said, we owe Donald Trump an open heed and the hazard to lead. I meant it. Every president deserves that.

michael barbaro

On the third night of the Democratic National Convention, the last Autonomous nominee for president, Hillary Clinton, implored Americans to replace the man who defeated her in 2016 by electing Joe Biden.

archived recording (barack obama)

I wish Donald Trump knew how to exist a president because America needs a president right at present.

michael barbaro

Later in the night, President Obama, standing before an prototype of the United states of america Constitution, offered himself as a graphic symbol witness for his erstwhile vice president.

archived recording (barack obama)

12 years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I didn't know I'd end up finding a blood brother. Joe and I come up from different places, different generations. But what I chop-chop came to admire about Joe Biden is his resilience, built-in of as well much struggle, his empathy, born of too much grief.

michael barbaro

And in the night's keynote speech, Senator Kamala Harris accepted the party's nomination for vice president, calling on the land to face up structural racism and acknowledging that the challenges facing her and Biden are enormous.

archived recording (kamala harris)

So make no mistake, the road ahead is not easy. We may stumble. Nosotros may fall short. But I pledge to y'all that we volition act boldly and deal with our challenges honestly. We volition speak truths. And we volition act with the aforementioned faith in y'all that we enquire y'all to place in usa.

michael barbaro

Biden is scheduled to evangelize his credence speech later tonight.

That's it for "The Daily." I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

"Twelve years agone, when I began my search for a vice president, I didn't know I'd end up finding a blood brother," Mr. Obama said, recalling that "Joe and I came from dissimilar places and different generations."

Only Mr. Obama said that he had apace come to admire Mr. Biden. "Joe'due south a man who learned early on to treat every person he meets with respect and dignity, living past the words his parents taught him: 'No one's better than you, but you're better than nobody.'"

Over eight years, Mr. Obama said, "Joe was the last one in the room whenever I faced a large decision."

"He made me a meliorate president," he added. "He's got the character and the experience to make us a better state."

In Ms. Harris, Mr. Obama said, Mr. Biden had "called an ideal partner who is more than than prepared for the chore, someone who knows what it'due south like to overcome barriers and who's fabricated a career fighting to help others live out their own American dream."

Here is a transcript of Mr. Obama's remarks:

Barack Obama: Good evening, everybody. Every bit y'all've seen by now, this isn't a normal convention. It's not a normal time. So this night, I want to talk as evidently as I tin nearly the stakes in this election. Because what we practise these next 76 days will echo through generations to come.

I'm in Philadelphia, where our Constitution was drafted and signed. It wasn't a perfect document. It immune for the inhumanity of slavery and failed to guarantee women — and even men who didn't own property — the right to participate in the political process. Simply embedded in this document was a Northward Star that would guide time to come generations; a arrangement of representative government — a democracy — through which we could better realize our highest ideals. Through ceremonious war and bitter struggles, we improved this Constitution to include the voices of those who'd once been left out. And gradually, we made this country more than simply, more equal and more costless.

The 1 Constitutional office elected past all of the people is the presidency. So at minimum, we should look a president to feel a sense of responsibility for the safety and welfare of all 330 1000000 of us — regardless of what we await like, how we worship, who nosotros dear, how much money we have — or who we voted for.

But nosotros should as well expect a president to be the custodian of this democracy. We should expect that regardless of ego, ambition or political beliefs, the president volition preserve, protect and defend the freedoms and ideals that so many Americans marched for and went to jail for; fought for and died for.

I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or go on my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously, that he might come to experience the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.

But he never did. For shut to four years now, he's shown no interest in putting in the work; no involvement in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to aid anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything merely one more reality prove that he can utilize to get the attention he craves.

Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe: 170,000 Americans dead, millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished and our autonomous institutions threatened like never before.

Now, I know that in times as polarized as these, most of you accept already fabricated up your listen. Only maybe you're yet not certain which candidate you'll vote for — or whether you'll vote at all. Maybe you're tired of the direction we're headed, but you can't see a better path yet, or you just don't know enough most the person who wants to lead usa there.

So allow me tell you nigh my friend Joe Biden.

Twelve years agone, when I began my search for a vice president, I didn't know I'd end up finding a brother. Joe and I came from different places and different generations. But what I quickly came to admire about him is his resilience, born of too much struggle; his empathy, born of too much grief. Joe'south a man who learned — early on — to treat every person he meets with respect and dignity, living by the words his parents taught him: "No one'south improve than yous, Joe, but you're better than nobody."

That empathy, that decency, the belief that everybody counts — that'south who Joe is.

When he talks with someone who's lost her job, Joe remembers the night his male parent sat him down to say that he'd lost his.

When Joe listens to a parent who's trying to hold it all together correct now, he does it as the single dad who took the train dorsum to Wilmington each and every dark then he could constrict his kids into bed.

When he meets with war machine families who've lost their hero, he does it as a kindred spirit; the parent of an American soldier; somebody whose faith has endured the hardest loss there is.

For viii years, Joe was the terminal ane in the room whenever I faced a large decision. He made me a better president — and he's got the character and the experience to make us a amend land.

And in my friend Kamala Harris, he'due south chosen an platonic partner who's more than than prepared for the job; someone who knows what it's like to overcome barriers and who's made a career fighting to assist others alive out their ain American dream.

Forth with the experience needed to get things washed, Joe and Kamala have physical policies that volition turn their vision of a improve, fairer, stronger state into reality.

They'll become this pandemic under control, like Joe did when he helped me manage H1N1 and prevent an Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores.

They'll expand wellness care to more Americans, like Joe and I did 10 years agone when he helped craft the Affordable Intendance Act and smash downwardly the votes to make information technology the law.

They'll rescue the economic system, similar Joe helped me practice after the Keen Recession. I asked him to manage the Recovery Human action, which spring-started the longest stretch of job growth in history. And he sees this moment now not every bit a chance to get back to where we were, simply to make long-overdue changes and then that our economy really makes life a little easier for everybody — whether it's the waitress trying to raise a kid on her own, or the shift worker always on the edge of getting laid off or the student figuring out how to pay for next semester's classes.

Joe and Kamala will restore our standing in the world — and as we've learned from this pandemic, that matters. Joe knows the world, and the world knows him. He knows that our true strength comes from setting an case the earth wants to follow. A nation that stands with democracy, not dictators. A nation that tin can inspire and mobilize others to overcome threats similar climate change, terrorism, poverty and disease.

But more than anything, what I know nigh Joe and Kamala is that they really care about every American. And they care deeply almost this republic.

They believe that in a republic, the right to vote is sacred, and nosotros should be making it easier for people to bandage their election, not harder.

They believe that no one — including the president — is above the constabulary, and that no public official — including the president — should apply their role to enrich themselves or their supporters.

They empathise that in this democracy, the commander in main doesn't use the men and women of our military, who are willing to run a risk everything to protect our nation, as political props to deploy confronting peaceful protesters on our own soil. They understand that political opponents aren't "un-American" but because they disagree with you lot; that a free printing isn't the "enemy" but the mode we hold officials accountable; that our power to work together to solve big problems like a pandemic depends on a fidelity to facts and science and logic and not just making stuff up.

None of this should be controversial. These shouldn't be Republican principles or Democratic principles. They're American principles. But at this moment, this president and those who enable him, accept shown they don't believe in these things.

Tonight, I am asking you to believe in Joe and Kamala's ability to lead this country out of these dark times and build it dorsum better. But here's the matter: no single American tin fix this country alone. Non even a president. Democracy was never meant to exist transactional — yous give me your vote; I make everything better. Information technology requires an active and informed citizenry. So I am also asking you to believe in your own ability — to encompass your own responsibility as citizens — to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy suffer.

Because that'due south what's at stake right at present. Our commonwealth.

Look, I understand why many Americans are downward on regime. The way the rules take been gear up and driveling in Congress make information technology like shooting fish in a barrel for special interests to cease progress. Believe me, I know. I sympathise why a white factory worker who's seen his wages cut or his job shipped overseas might feel like the government no longer looks out for him, and why a Black mother might feel similar it never looked out for her at all. I empathise why a new immigrant might look around this state and wonder whether in that location's yet a place for him here; why a young person might look at politics right now, the circus of information technology all, the meanness and the lies and crazy conspiracy theories and recollect, What's the point?

Well, here's the betoken: this president and those in power — those who benefit from keeping things the style they are — they are counting on your pessimism. They know they can't win you lot over with their policies. And so they're hoping to make it as hard every bit possible for yous to vote, and to convince you that your vote doesn't matter. That'due south how they win. That'due south how they become to keep making decisions that bear upon your life, and the lives of the people you dearest. That's how the economic system will keep getting skewed to the wealthy and well-connected, how our health systems will permit more than people fall through the cracks. That's how a commonwealth withers, until information technology'south no democracy at all.

We can't let that happen. Exercise not let them take away your power. Don't allow them take away your democracy. Make a plan correct now for how you're going to get involved and vote. Do it as early as you can and tell your family and friends how they tin vote too. Practice what Americans have done for over 2 centuries when faced with even tougher times than this — all those serenity heroes who found the backbone to keep marching, continue pushing in the face of hardship and injustice.

Last month, we lost a giant of American commonwealth in John Lewis. Some years ago, I sat downwards with John and the few remaining leaders of the early on ceremonious rights move. One of them told me he never imagined he'd walk into the White Business firm and run into a president who looked similar his grandson. Then he told me that he'd looked it up, and it turned out that on the very day that I was born, he was marching into a jail jail cell, trying to end Jim Crow segregation in the South.

What we do echoes through the generations.

Whatever our backgrounds, nosotros're all the children of Americans who fought the good fight. Great-grandparents working in firetraps and sweatshops without rights or representation. Farmers losing their dreams to grit. Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos told to get dorsum where they came from. Jews and Catholics, Muslims and Sikhs, made to feel suspect for the style they worshiped. Black Americans chained and whipped and hanged. Spit on for trying to sit at lunch counters. Beaten for trying to vote.

If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work, and could not work, it was those Americans. Our ancestors. They were on the receiving stop of a democracy that had fallen short all their lives. They knew how far the daily reality of America strayed from the myth. And withal, instead of giving upwards, they joined together and said somehow, some way, we are going to make this work. We are going to bring those words, in our founding documents, to life.

I've seen that same spirit rising these by few years. Folks of every age and groundwork who packed city centers and airports and rural roads so that families wouldn't be separated. And then that another classroom wouldn't get shot up. And then that our kids won't abound upwards on an uninhabitable planet. Americans of all races joining together to declare, in the face of injustice and brutality at the hands of the state, that Blackness lives affair, no more, only no less, so that no child in this land feels the continuing sting of racism.

To the young people who led united states this summer, telling us we need to exist better — in so many ways, yous are this country's dreams fulfilled. Earlier generations had to be persuaded that everyone has equal worth. For you, information technology'due south a given — a conviction. And what I desire you to know is that for all its messiness and frustrations, your organization of self-regime tin can exist harnessed to help you realize those convictions.

You can give our republic new meaning. You tin can take it to a better place. You're the missing ingredient — the ones who will make up one's mind whether or not America becomes the land that fully lives upward to its creed.

That work will keep long after this election. But any hazard of success depends entirely on the outcome of this election. This administration has shown it volition tear our democracy downwards if that's what information technology takes to win. Then we have to get busy edifice it up — by pouring all our attempt into these 76 days, and past voting like never before — for Joe and Kamala, and candidates upwardly and down the ticket, so that nosotros get out no incertitude well-nigh what this state we love stands for — today and for all our days to come up.

Stay safe. God bless.

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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/us/politics/obama-speech.html

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