President Biden’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago was delayed until after prime time on Monday night.
The 81-year-old president used a tissue to dry his tears after being introduced on stage by daughter Ashley Biden at about 10:25 p.m. CT.
He went on to deliver about an hour-long address that did not conclude until well after midnight on the East Coast.
“This is awful,” a longtime Biden aide texted Axios. “He literally set up a campaign and handed it over to them – do they have to cut him out of prime time?”
In a statement to Fox News, convention officials attributed the delay to the energy of the audience throughout the night.
“Because of the raucous applause interrupting speaker after speaker, we ultimately skipped elements of our program to ensure we could get to President Biden as quickly as possible so that he could speak directly to the American people,” convention officials said in a statement obtained by Axios. “We are proud of the electric atmosphere in our convention hall and proud that our convention is showcasing the broad and diverse coalition behind the Harris-Walz ticket throughout the week on and off stage.”
After concluding his speech in the dead of night, Biden arrived on the West Coast after 5 a.m. ET. The president is now on vacation and is not expected to participate in the remaining three days of the convention, including when Vice President Harris is expected to formally accept the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday.
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In his keynote speech, which wrapped the first night of the four-day convention, Biden attacked Republican nominee and former President Trump on issues including the violent Charlottesville protests, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the border and crime, referencing the start of Harris’ political career in urging Americans to “put a prosecutor in the Oval Office instead of a convicted felon.”
Biden also denied reports that he was angry after fellow Democrats urged him to discontinue his re-election campaign following his disastrous Atlanta debate performance against Trump in June.
“It’s been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your president. I love the job, but I love my country more. I love my country more. Now, all this talk about how I’m angry. All those people said I should step down. That’s not true. I love my country more,” Biden said. The president noted his advanced age and decades-long career in politics.
“I made a lot of mistakes in my career. But I gave my best to you,” Biden said. “For 50 years. Like many of you, I give my heart and soul to our nation. And I’ve been blessed a million times in return with the support of the American people. I’ve either been too young to be in the Senate because I wasn’t 30 yet and too old to stay as president. But I hope you know how grateful I am to all of you.”
Yet, as he’s notorious for, Biden mangled his words during a portion of the address regarding the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“As you heard earlier tonight, United States Supreme Court majority wrote the following quote: women are not without electrical, not not allowed, not without electoral, electoral. Or political power. No kidding,” Biden said, as some applauded in support. “MAGA Republicans found out the power of women in 2022. And Donald Trump is going to find out the power of women in 2024.”
Biden referenced his stutter later, proclaiming “nowhere else in the world could a kid with a stutter and modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, grow up to sit behind the Resolute Desk.”
He also further passed the torch to Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. For a brief moment, Biden appeared to joke that Harris was already president.
“Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made before I became, when I became our nominee, and it was the best decision I made my whole career. We’ve not only gotten to know each other, we’ve become close friends. And like many of our best presidents, she was also vice president. That’s a joke,” Biden said. “But she’ll be a president our children could look up to. She’ll be a president respected by world leaders because she already is. She’ll be a president we can all be proud of. And she will be a historic president who puts her stamp on America’s future. This will be the first presidential election since January 6th.”
“I promise I’ll be the best volunteer Harris and Walz’s camp have ever seen. Each of us has a part in the American story,” he said.
“I’ve got five months left in my presidency. I’ve got a lot to do. I intend to get it done,” Biden added.
Fox News’ Kellianne Jones contributed to this report.
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