President Joe Biden announced he will address the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET, days after making the decision to drop out of the presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him.
He wrote on social media that he will discuss “what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people.” In his letter on Sunday announcing his departure from the top of the Democratic ticket, Biden said he plans to finish his term in office, though top Republicans have since called on him to resign.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden wrote. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
He promised to speak to the nation in greater detail about his decision this week. After remaining at his Delaware home recovering from COVID-19, Biden plans to return to the White House on Tuesday afternoon, according to his schedule.
While he has not made a public appearance since the announcement, Biden called into the Wilmington, Del., headquarters of what is now the Harris campaign on Monday to pledge his support for Harris and tell campaign workers, “I’m not going anywhere.”
“The name has changed on the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn't changed at all," Biden said. "And by the way, I'm not going anywhere, I'm gonna be out there in the campaign with her, with Kamala, I'm going to be working like hell, both as a sitting president getting legislation passed as well as in the campaign."
In those remarks, he said he believed his decision to drop out was the “right thing to do” and vowed to stay “fully engaged” in the campaign and his work as president.
“He believes she was the right person to take over the campaign, and she is. And while all of us -- it was hard for many of us -- we are incredibly proud of this president,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday morning. “We trust his leadership, we trust his judgment, and we're just going to continue to be behind him as he continues to leave this country.”
“By time we've run through the finish line, at the end of January, he would have done more than most presidents have done in eight years, he would have done more in four years,” she continued. “And what we saw from this president the last couple days was a human decency, a good man, someone who decided not to put himself first, like we've seen before, but to put the American people first, and this country first.”
Biden has sparingly used the Oval Office to make speeches during his time in the White House, though he addressed the nation from there last week in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. It will be the fourth Oval Office address of his presidency.