Biden tells America ‘I gave my best to you’ as he places his legacy in Harris’ hands

Chicago CNN —

Awash in his party’s love, President Joe Biden finally did become that bridge to a new generation of leaders.

He movingly performed the most profound act a politician in a democracy can undertake — willingly handing over power — as he ceded the leadership of the party to Kamala Harris Monday at the Democratic National Convention.

He capped a half-century long career, as a senator, a vice president and finally president, by citing a verse of a song called “American Anthem” that he said was important to his family. “What shall our legacy be, what will our children say, let me know in my heart when my days are through, America, America, I gave my best to you,” he said.

In a valedictory speech in Chicago that stretched past midnight on the east coast, Biden, 81, also placed that legacy — and what he sees as the fate of American democracy — in the hands of the woman he referred to as “vice president soon-to-be-president Kamala Harris.”

Presdient Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on stage at the end of the first night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19.

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“She’s tough, she’s experienced and she has enormous integrity,” he said.

“Her story represents the best American story,” Biden said. “She’ll be a president our children can look up to. She’ll be a president respected by world leaders. … She will be a president we can all be proud of. She will be a historic president who puts her stamp on America’s future.”

Biden’s gesture was especially poignant as he became the first sitting president to shelve a reelection race in more than five-and-a-half decades.

He wanted deeply to