NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.: Joe Biden spent his final full day as president Sunday in South Carolina, urging Americans to \u201ckeep the faith in a better day to come\u201d and reflecting on the impact of the civil rights movement in pushing him into politics.
\nOn the eve of Monday\u2019s inauguration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, Biden delivered a final farewell from a state that holds special meaning after his commanding win in its 2020 Democratic primary set him up to achieve his life\u2019s goal of being elected president of the United States.
\nBiden spoke to the congregation of Royal Missionary Baptist Church about why he entered public service \u2014 Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were political heroes, he said \u2014 and he thanked South Carolina for its support: \u201cI owe you big.\u201d Monday is the federal holiday honoring King, the slain civil rights leader.
\n\u201cWe know the struggle to redeeming the soul of this nation is difficult and ongoing,\u201d Biden said. \u201cWe must hold on to hope. We must stay engaged. We must always keep the faith in the better day to come.\u201d
\nHe added: \u201cI\u2019m not going anywhere\u201d \u2014 and the congregation applauded.
\nBefore the service, as hostages started to be released under a Middle East ceasefire that the US helped broker, Biden said \u201cthe guns in Gaza have gone silent.\u201d The agreement to halt the fighting between Israel and Hamas was one he had outlined in May.
\n\u201cNow it falls on the next administration to help implement this deal. I was pleased to have our team speak as one voice in the final days,\u201d Biden said.
\nHe noted that the three hostages released Sunday \u201cappear to be in good health\u201d and he offered some advice to Trump on maintaining the hard-won deal.
\n\u201cSuccess is going to require persistence, and continuing support for our friends in the region and the belief in diplomacy backed by deterrence,\u201d Biden said.
\nAfter Biden spoke on the ceasefire, he and first lady Jill Biden took their seats in the front pew at the church. At least several hundred congregants sang gospel songs, rising to their feet and swaying and clapping. A choir led the musical selections from behind the pulpit before the program later shifted to focus on King.
\nBiden was introduced by Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., a key ally who referred to the president as his \u201clongtime friend.\u201d Clyburn cited a number of presidents who were underappreciated during their time in office but are now looked on more fondly with the passage of time. He added Biden to that list.
\n\u201cSo I want to say to you, good friend, very little appreciation has been shown recently but faint not. History will be very proud of you,\u201d Clyburn said.
\nThe Bidens also will tour the International African American Museum in South Carolina. It was built on a waterfront site where tens of thousands of enslaved Africans were brought to the US from the late 1760s through 1808, according to the museum\u2019s website.
\nBack in 2020, Biden saw his campaign flounder after he lost the opening contests in New Hampshire, Iowa and Nevada. But at the fourth stop, South Carolina \u2014 where Black voters make up a majority of the Democratic electorate \u2014 he was lifted to victory after Clyburn\u2019s endorsement.
\n\u201cI know Joe. We know Joe. But most importantly, Joe knows us,\u201d Clyburn said at the time.
\nAfter winning election and taking office, Biden pushed for South Carolina to move to the head of the line and be the state that opened the Democratic Party\u2019s nominating process for 2024, instead of New Hampshire. He easily won the state\u2019s primary that year.
\n\u201cIn 2020, it was the voters of South Carolina who proved the pundits wrong, breathed new life into our campaign, and set us on the path to winning the presidency,\u201d Biden said in a statement after winning the primary for the second time. \u201cNow in 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again and I have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the Presidency again \u2014 and making Donald Trump a loser \u2014 again.\u201d
\nIt didn\u2019t turn out that way. After faltering in a debate against Trump, Biden dropped out of the race under pressure from many Democrats, though Clyburn notably was not among them.
\nBiden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced him as the Democrats\u2019 nominee. She lost to Trump.
\nClyburn said Biden told him he wanted to visit the African American history museum, which Clyburn helped start. They were planning to spend some time together there.
\n\u201cThis is his way of saying \u2018thank you,\u2019\u201d Clyburn said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.: Joe Biden spent his final full day as president Sunday in South Carolina, urging Americans to \u201ckeep the faith in a better day to come\u201d and reflecting on the impact of the civil rights movement in pushing him into politics. On the eve of Monday\u2019s inauguration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, Biden …<\/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-75813","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\/75813","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=75813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75830,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75813\/revisions\/75830"}],"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=75813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}