Andrew Stiles of the Washington Free Beacon parses President Biden’s speech to the political party that rejected him.
President Joe Biden wasn’t supposed to give a speech on Monday, the opening day of the Democratic convention in Chicago. He should have been resting up for the main event on Thursday. Everyone else was supposed to be singing his praises, not thanking him for going away. The crowd was supposed to be cheering his reelection, not screaming their lungs out at any mention of his (very much involuntary) departure from public life.
Yet there the old man stood, on stage at the United Center, listening to the deafening chants of “We love Joe,” looking out on a sea of signs. A passing of the torch. Joe Biden’s last hurrah. Introduced by his daughter Ashley and wife Dr. Jill, the president fondly recalled his father’s words that “family is the beginning, the middle, and the end.” Biden said this one day before the mother of his granddaughter, whom he still hasn’t seen, publishes a bombshell memoir recounting the hell Hunter Biden and his team of lawyers put her through—the chaos roiling Biden’s precious family when he decided to subject them to a presidential campaign.
Biden didn’t come out until 11:30 p.m. Eastern, well past his bedtime and significantly behind schedule, a move that irked some Biden loyalists who complained about how “awful” it was that Democrats had “cut him out of prime time.” The crowd cheered politely while Biden listed off his accomplishments, yelled his geezerly yell, and mangled the words written on his giant teleprompter—except when he bragged about (allegedly) reducing unlawful border crossings. They cheered louder when he touted his commitment to “strengthening illegal immigration.” They had already expended most of their energy on the younger, more relevant Democrat speakers who were also eager to thank Biden for leaving (against his will) and giving them a joyous and historic candidate.
