Political commentators and liberal media hosts are hailing President Biden for choosing to withdraw from the presidential campaign, with multiple broadcasters comparing him to George Washington.
Biden faced increasing pressure from members of the media to step aside as the nominee for the good of the Democratic Party in the weeks after he debated former President Trump.
The president's announcement on Sunday that he would drop out of the race ended weeks of debate within the Democratic Party, with multiple members of Congress and even actor George Clooney requesting that Biden give up his presidential ambitions.
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"If you cannot appreciate the dignity, the grace, the selflessness, the patriotism of that speech – akin to Washington's farewell – but instead feel compelled to denigrate him, nitpick or return to petty partisan politics I pity you," Washington Post columnist Jen Rubin wrote Wednesday. "You're denying yourself the majesty, the inspiration of America and of a great president. Go self-reflect."
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"A powerful photo," CBS News correspondent Roberta Costa wrote on Wednesday. "The hand toward his father’s face. The eyes. Put aside politics and everything related for a moment, and viewed simply on a human level, you see two men, father and son, still at each other’s side, more than a half-century since the darkness of Dec. 18, 1972."
Biden's first wife, Neilia, and his young daughter, Naomi, were both killed in a car accident in 1972, an event that the president has spoken about on multiple occasions in the years since and on the campaign trail.
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MSNBC’s Joy Reid said Wednesday that Biden showed the country the extent to which he would sacrifice his own personal ambitions.
"This was selfless on a level, I think, that's important in a way that we talk about George Washington being selfless," Reid said. "In saying, ‘I could keep doing this, for me, because I think I can, but I’m going to stop doing it because I think there are choices," she said.
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough read from a guest essay by historian Jon Meacham that was published on Monday in The New York Times.
"His decision is one of the most remarkable acts of leadership in our history, an act of self-sacrifice that places him in the company of George Washington, who also stepped away from the presidency," Meacham wrote.
Meacham was fired as an MSNBC contributor in 2020 for failing to disclose that he served as a speechwriter for Biden during the campaign.
CNN host Abby Phillip said that the president would be a much more "powerful" national figure if he continued to lean into the decision he made by dropping out of his presidential campaign.
"This moment puts [Biden], you know, with a bunch of American greats, you know, the sort of George Washingtons of the world," Phillip said. "He's stepping away from power. If he stays in that lane, I think that will be so much powerful and impactful."
"The View" co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said Thursday that Biden reminded Americans that presidents were not in power for life, but served as temporary representatives of the people.
"Presidents are merely custodians of the White House," Griffin said. "They're there as elected representatives of the people. Not to be there forever. Not running because the country is all based around them and their vision. They're there to serve for a period."
"George Washington knew when to pass the baton," she said. "I said a year ago on this show, if [Biden] did pass the baton to a next generation of leadership the history books would remember him very fondly and I believe that deeply."
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"I want to celebrate Joe Biden and his remarks last night, giving up power, as you know, almost never happens in Washington," Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., said Thursday in response to Biden's Oval Office address on Wednesday night.
"George Washington led by example. Joe Biden did," Phillips said. "I want to celebrate him and also recognize what a gift he gave to his country, putting it above his own self-interest."
Phillips was one of the few Democrats who challenged Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination during the primaries earlier this year, before ending his presidential bid in March. He repeatedly cited the president's age and criticized Biden for "not passing the torch" to the next generation of Democratic leaders.
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
