WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe BidenPresident Obama, who belatedly gave up on reelection, is scheduled to visit the library of the last president who made the same difficult choice more than half a century ago on Monday.
Biden’s speech on Monday at the Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, was planned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act enacted under President Lyndon Johnson. But after Biden was forced to cancel the speech after contracting COVID-19 and it took two weeks for it to be rescheduled, the visit took on an entirely different symbolism.
The speech, originally scheduled for July 15, had once been seen in the White House as an opportunity for Biden to present his case to salvage his sinking presidential campaign. It took place in the hometown of Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a 15-term congressman and the first Democrat to publicly call for Biden to step down.
Two weeks later, the political landscape has shifted: Biden has dropped out of the race, Vice President Kamala Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee, and the president is focused not on the next four years, but on the accomplishments of his one term and the future of our democracy.
No sitting US president has ever dropped out of a campaign as late as Biden, except for Johnson, who announced in March 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War that he would not seek reelection.
Biden has been frequently compared in recent days to Johnson, after both men explained their decisions to the nation from the Oval Office and both faced pressure from within their own parties to resign but were ultimately praised for doing so.
But for entirely different reasons: Johnson spoke at length about the need to step back and focus on the conflict in the heat of the war. Biden, 81, had planned to seek reelection until his shaky performance in the June 27 debate raised concerns within his own party about his age, mental health and whether he could beat Republican Donald Trump.
Biden has called Trump a serious threat to democracy after he sought to overturn the results of the election he lost and continued to lie about his loss in 2020. The president said his decision to drop out of the race was driven by the need to unite the party to protect democracy.
“I’ve decided the best way to move forward is to pass the baton to a new generation. That’s the best way to unite our country,” Biden said in an Oval Office speech. “Nothing, nothing can get in the way of protecting our democracy, including individual ambition.”
Biden decided to run for president in 2020 after witnessing violence at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. At the rally, white supremacists marched with torches to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, chanting, “You cannot replace us!” and “The Jews cannot replace us!”
Biden said he was horrified by Trump’s response, especially when he told reporters that “there were some very bad people in that group, but there were also some very fine people on both sides.”
Biden has often made equality and civil rights a top priority during his presidency, including in his selection of vice president, where Harris would be the first woman, black and South Asian to hold the position and potentially the first woman to be elected president.
The Biden administration has worked to combat racial discrimination in the real estate market, pardoned thousands of people convicted of federal marijuana offenses that have disproportionately affected people of color, provided federal funds to reintegrate urban neighborhoods that were racially segregated or divided by road construction, and invested billions of dollars in historically black colleges and universities.
Johnson says his efforts are about moving the country forward and preventing efforts to undermine the landmark law he signed in 1964, one of the most significant civil rights achievements in U.S. history.
The law made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It was enacted to eliminate discrimination in schools, workplaces, and public accommodations, and prohibited the unequal application of voter registration requirements.
Johnson signed the bill five hours after Parliament approved it, saying the nation was in “testing times” that “cannot fail.” He added: “Let us shut down the source of racial poison. Let us pray for wise and understanding hearts. Let us set aside irrelevant differences and unite our nation.”
Eight years later, Johnson organized a civil rights symposium that brought together those fighting for further progress in the civil rights movement.
“The progress has been too small. We are not yet far enough,” he said at a symposium in 1972. “We cannot overcome unequal opportunity unless we overcome unequal history… We still have work to do. So let’s keep going.”
Biden said he was “determined to get everything done” in his remaining six months in office, including signing a major bill to expand voting rights and a federal police bill named after George Floyd.
“From the right to vote to the right to choose, we will continue to defend our individual liberties and civil rights,” Biden said in the Oval Office. “We will continue to condemn hate and extremism, and make clear that there is no place in America for political violence or violence of any kind.”
Biden is scheduled to visit Houston later Monday to pay tribute to the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who died July 19 at age 74.
