With what must surely be one of the most anguishing decisions of his career behind him, President Biden now has an unprecedented opportunity ahead of him to address the American people in an upcoming prime-time address and reframe the stakes of the election in ways that would have been impossible only a few days ago.
I study presidential rhetoric from George Washington to the present day. History tells us that if he wants to make the most of this extraordinary opportunity, this is what Biden should do.
First, he must recognize that this upcoming speech will almost certainly be the most anticipated address of his lengthy political career. It may also be the most consequential. It may not be the victory speech he’d hoped to make, but Biden now has an unparalleled opportunity to explain why he believes his exit from the race is essential to the health and strength of the nation.
Lyndon B. Johnson made a similar move in 1968 when he told the American people he would not seek his party’s nomination for president. The announcement came at the end of a lengthy speech on Vietnam, in which the president explained his decision to halt a bombing campaign over North Vietnam and begin a gradual increase in U.S. military personnel.
“With America’s sons in the fields far away [and] with America’s future under challenge right here at home,” he said, “I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office.”
In this framing, Johnson argued that his constitutional duty to the president's office was more important than his political ambition.
Fifty-six years later, Biden now has a similar opportunity.
Having stepped aside as the Democratic nominee and thrown his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, the president now speaks with the credibility of an elder statesman, not a presidential candidate, to what may be the largest audience of his life. He can use this moment to make a clear, compelling argument for why he believes democracy is on the ballot. His audience is far more likely to listen.
Second, the president and his advisors might consider this speech a precursor to the Farewell Address. As a ceremonial genre of presidential speech, outgoing chief executives often use their departure to reflect on their time in office and offer counsel for the future.
Ronald Reagan’s farewell speech described his vision of the United States as a “shining city on a hill” and George H.W. Bush spoke of a “thousand points of light.”
The origin of this tradition goes back to the nation’s first president. In a letter published in the American Daily Advertiser on Sept. 19, 1796, George Washington announced his decision to retire from public life. He also used the occasion to warn against the dangers of political division and internal strife.
In a fatherly show of what he called “a solicitude for your welfare,” Washington claimed to offer his observations with “the disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly have no personal motive to bias his counsel.” Biden can now more convincingly say the same.
To be sure, Washington enjoyed a near-mythic status in ways that Biden does not. And yet, the current president can use his newfound political credibility to mobilize both Democrats and Republicans around a shared common goal: protecting and defending U.S. democratic institutions.
Finally, Biden should embrace the symbolism of what might be his most persuasive backdrop: the Oval Office.
Ever since Harry S. Truman, U.S. presidents have delivered important public announcements from their West Wing office. Some speeches, like Ronald Reagan’s address after the Challenger disaster or George W. Bush’s speech on the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, were designed to offer comfort in times of national tragedy.
In other moments, U.S. presidents have offered frank assessments of the world situation, as did John F. Kennedy when he spoke to the U.S. public during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Biden used this same setting a few weeks ago when he denounced political violence after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Now, however, Biden has the opportunity to speak to the nation from the very office he just willingly surrendered. From behind the Resolute Desk, Biden has the chance to remind his audience that the Oval Office is more than a political prop. Instead, it embodies the idea that the U.S. presidency was designed to be an institution that outlasts and extends beyond a single individual.
In his inaugural address exactly two weeks after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, President Biden called the American people to give their best to the “unfolding story of our nation,” a story that was not yet complete.
“If we do this then when our days are through,” he said, “our children and our children’s children will say of us they gave their best. They did their duty. They healed a broken land.”
Three and a half years later, there is no question that President Biden’s address to the nation will be one for the history books. He should use it to remind the U.S. public of his pledge on Jan. 20, 2021: to answer the “call of history” so that “democracy and hope, truth and justice, did not die on our watch but thrived.”
Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race is a reminder that, at times, answering the call of history requires deep personal sacrifice.
And yet, by giving up the most powerful office in the world, Biden may have saved it.
Allison M. Prasch is an associate professor of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of “The World is Our Stage.”
