Biden tells America ‘I gave my best to you’ as he places his legacy in

Chicago
CNN
 — 

Awash in his party’s love, President Joe Biden finally did become that bridge to a new generation of leaders.

He movingly performed the most profound act a politician in a democracy can undertake — willingly handing over power — as he ceded the leadership of the party to Kamala Harris Monday at the Democratic National Convention.

He capped a half-century long career, as a senator, a vice president and finally president, by citing a verse of a song called “American Anthem” that he said was important to his family. “What shall our legacy be, what will our children say, let me know in my heart when my days are through, America, America, I gave my best to you,” he said.

In a valedictory speech in Chicago that stretched passed midnight on the east coast, Biden, 81, also placed that legacy — and what he sees as the fate of American democracy — in the hands of the woman he referred to as “vice president soon-to-be-president Kamala Harris.”

“She tough, she’s experienced and she has enormous integrity,” he said.

“Her story represents the best American story,” Biden said. “She’ll be a president our children can look up to. She’ll be a president respected by world leaders. … She will be a president we can all be proud of. She will be a historic president who puts her stamp on America’s future.”

Biden’s gesture was especially poignant as he became the first sitting president to shelve a reelection race in more than five-and-a-half decades.

He wanted deeply to win the second term that all presidents crave, but ultimately, under fierce pressure from colleagues he once considered loyalists, decided that his party and the country would be better off with someone younger.

His self-sacrifice highlighted the exact opposite choice made by his predecessor, Donald Trump, who did everything he could to cling to power in defiance of voters’ will in 2020 and is now running again for a term he’s promised to dedicate to “retribution.”

Hours earlier, Trump had echoed the language that drove America into its worst constitutional crisis of the modern era four years ago. He implied he’d only accept this year’s result if he thinks it’s free and fair. There was no evidence that was not the case last time, and there is no sign it will be different this year.

Biden entered a colosseum of emotion when he slow-jogged on stage after his daughter’s Ashley’s introduction, then pulled out a handkerchief to dab his eyes. A thunderous ovation gave way to chants of “We love Joe!” and “Thank you Joe” from the crowd. Biden grabbed the podium,…