Biden sidesteps hard truths, fails to capture prime time slot

It was Joe Biden’s first chance to define how he will be judged by history.

In a rare televised address from the Oval Office Wednesday night, he spoke of his accomplishments. He spoke of his humble roots. He sang the praises of the American people. He said the future of American democracy was in their hands.

What he did not do, despite saying he would always be honest with Americans, was provide a direct explanation for the biggest question of the moment.

He did not explain why he became the first incumbent president to abandon his re-election bid just months before voting began.

And that’s what will interest the history books the most.

He hinted at it. He talked about it to people around him. But he never addressed it head on. It’s up to the American people to read between the lines.

“In recent weeks,” Mr. Biden said, “it has become clear to me that I need to unify my party.”

He then echoed what has become a growing refrain among Democrats — that it was time to “pass the torch” to a new generation.

While saying that his accomplishments, which he listed in detail, merited a second term, he added that “nothing can stand in the way of saving our democracy – and that includes personal ambition.”

He didn’t say one thing: his resignation was because it was becoming increasingly clear that he was going to lose to Donald Trump in November. And it’s a result that everyone in his party considers catastrophic.

Lagging in the polls, embarrassed by a miserable debate performance and with a growing number of voices within the Democratic Party calling for his withdrawal, there was no clear path to a Biden victory.

While the president may not have said it, his Republican predecessor – and now former rival for the White House – had no such qualms.

At a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, hours before his speech, Donald Trump said Mr Biden had withdrawn because he was losing badly.

He then attacked Kamala Harris, the party’s presumptive new nominee, saying she was a “radical left lunatic” and the “ultra-liberal driving force behind every Biden disaster.”

Republican groups have flooded the airwaves in key states, seeking to define Ms. Harris on their terms, not hers. Trump’s camp is expected to outspend its Democratic counterparts by 25 times the amount spent over the next month, according to an Associated Press study.

One ad claimed that Ms. Harris was complicit in covering up the president’s “evident mental decline.”

Mr. Biden’s speech offered a nationally televised, prime-time opportunity to rebut attacks on his vice president and firmly address concerns about his ability to continue in office.

It was an opportunity he largely passed up.

Toward the end of his speech, the president praised his running mate. He said Harris was “experienced, strong, capable” and “an incredible partner for me and leader for our country.”

Those are strong words, but there aren’t many of them. He spent more time talking about Benjamin Franklin than he did about his vice president — the person he endorsed Sunday and who will be the most important torchbearer of his legacy in the months ahead.

With little coverage from the president, Harris and her team will have to decide whether, and how, to respond to the scathing attacks from Republicans in the days ahead.

Mr. Biden may have another chance to tout his former running mate at the Democratic convention in Chicago next month, but it is a delicate moment for the presumptive new nominee, as her campaign is just getting off the ground and Americans are still getting to know her.

The president may not have been comfortable getting too political in what could be his final speech in the Oval Office. But if he cares about his legacy, Harris’s success or failure, more than anything else he does from now on, is what matters.

It will determine whether history judges him as a man who made a noble sacrifice, or as a man who endangered his party by selfishly clinging to power for too long.