AUSTIN (KXAN) — History, security and politics will all come into sharp focus Monday when President Joe Biden returns to Austin for his first public appearance since shockingly ending his reelection campaign.
Biden will deliver a speech at the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum to mark 60 years since Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. These are remarks he rescheduled after canceling his initial appearance a day after the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.
During an interview Friday, Mark Lawrence, director of the LBJ Presidential Library, answered a question about whether safety protocols at the facility would change during Biden's visit.
"Needless to say, an enormous amount of effort and thought is going into security," Lawrence said. "It's an effort that involves Secret Service, local police, and many other organizations that have a hand in making these important decisions about how to secure this facility, how to secure Austin in some ways for this visit. And I must say — I'm completely impressed by the professionalism of everyone involved in this effort, and I'm confident that things will come off in exactly the way that we hope they will on Monday."
The library itself, though, is no stranger to holding high-profile events with prominent guests who require heavy security details. A decade ago, when the library marked 50 years of the Civil Rights Act, Lawrence noted four presidents — Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter — all attended that commemoration.
This time around, Lawrence said the library's "dream guest" for the 60th milestone was always President Biden.
"This visit has been many, many months in the making, and we were of course thrilled that the stars seemed to align a few weeks ago, though, so that he would appear here," Lawrence said. "And now, after some uncertainty, it appears as though this event is going to have even more — much more — significance than it would have."
He's of course talking about Biden's decision to withdraw from the presidential race and endorse his vice president, Kamala Harris, to become the Democrats' new nominee. Lawrence points out how stunningly similar this is to Johnson's decision to drop out of the Democratic primary in 1968.
"Here are two deeply political men who pursued the presidency for years, for decades, and they arrive at the pinnacle and then face this very difficult decision to withdraw," Lawrence said. "I think we can see from the history of both of these decisions how difficult it was for these individuals, but I think what really runs through these two cases is a really admirable tendency to put the interests of the country ahead of personal ambition. That was the case in 1968, in many ways, and it's certainly the case now."
Even though he has not seen Biden's remarks, Lawrence said he anticipates the president to not only address all that happened in recent days.
"I imagine that he would connect the likely nomination of Kamala Harris, a woman of color, to the history of the Civil Rights Act and the story of civil rights in the United States over the last 60 years," Lawrence said.
Because of his deep knowledge of Johnson's presidency, Lawrence said the current political moment has one notable difference from the 1968 presidential race.
"I think that one of the really interesting distinctions, perhaps between 1968 and our present moment, is the speed with which not only President Biden but the whole Democratic Party establishment came together around Kamala Harris," Lawrence said. "In 1968 it was somewhat different. There were other contenders besides the sitting vice president, Hubert Humphrey, for the nomination, and it took a while, took weeks for the party really to come together. Even then it was a very, very controversial decision, so to some extent, I think the Democratic Party has learned from that long-ago historical example how important it is to show unity around the most obvious contender to replace the president who's withdrawn."
KXAN will provide a live stream Monday of Biden's remarks at the LBJ Presidential Library. Those can be viewed on the station's website as well as the KXAN News Facebook page.
