WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden warned Wednesday that the \u201csoul of America\u201d is still at stake, as he prepared to deliver his farewell address to the nation before the return to power of Donald Trump.
\nThe 82-year-old Democrat will make a primetime speech from the Oval Office of the White House in which he is expected to tout the legacy of his single four-year term.
\nIn a letter previewing his remarks \u2014 due to be made at 8:00 p.m. US Eastern time (0100 GMT Thursday) \u2014 Biden took an implicit swipe at Republican Trump.
\n\u201cI ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake. And, that\u2019s still the case,\u201d Biden said in the letter.
\n\u201cHistory is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just have to keep the faith and remember who we are.\u201d
\nBiden said the United States was stronger than four years ago, when it \u201cstood in a winter of peril\u201d after Trump\u2019s chaotic first term, the Covid pandemic and what he called \u201cthe worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.\u201d
\nBiden was sworn in just days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters trying to overturn his election loss.
\nHe did not mention Trump by name \u2014 but his words clearly echoed previous speeches in which he said he decided to run in the 2020 election because America\u2019s \u201csoul\u201d was at risk from Trump and his supporters, and that Trump was a threat to democracy.
\nThe US president said he had asked the White House to also release a long list of what he termed his administration\u2019s achievements, covering issues ranging from the economy to health care and climate change.
\nHe said the United States had the \u201cstrongest economy in the world\u201d and was bringing down inflation \u2014 even if public anger over the cost of living was a major factor in the Democrats\u2019 election loss.
\n\u201cI have given my heart and my soul to our nation,\u201d said Biden, adding that it had been the \u201cprivilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years.\u201d
\nThe outgoing president has spent much of his final days in power trying to burnish his legacy.
\nThose efforts got a boost on Wednesday when Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and hostage release deal, for which Biden says he has been pushing for nearly a year and a half.
\n\u201cI\u2019m deeply satisfied this day has come, finally come,\u201d Biden said at the White House.
\nTrump, whose Middle East adviser was involved in the talks, also claimed credit for the \u201cepic\u201d accord.
\nBiden\u2019s legacy was, however, damaged by his decision to run for a second term despite his age.
\nThe Democrat was forced to drop out of the race last June after a disastrous debate against Trump, 78, who went on to a commanding victory over Biden\u2019s vice president, Kamala Harris.
\nIn a farewell interview in the Washington Post published Wednesday, outgoing First Lady Jill Biden took a dig at the Democratic Party for pressing Biden to drop out.
\n\u201cLet\u2019s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded,\u201d she said.
\nEmotions ran high at the White House.
\nPress Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre \u2014 part of a team that brought back regular media briefings after Trump ended them during his first term \u2014 fought back tears on her last appearance at the famous podium as she described the \u201chonor of a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden warned Wednesday that the \u201csoul of America\u201d is still at stake, as he prepared to deliver his farewell address to the nation before the return to power of Donald Trump. The 82-year-old Democrat will make a primetime speech from the Oval Office of the White House in which he is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":75567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75722,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75704\/revisions\/75722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}