Biden gives Oval Office address: What we learned, what’s next

President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office Wednesday night in the culmination of a pivotal few weeks that saw him relinquish the Democratic presidential nomination — an act that may one day be the defining moment of his political career.

The speech was an attempt to exit political life gracefully, but it also served as a reminder that only days after the president announced his unprecedented decision, the nation has already moved on.

Democratic delegates quickly consolidated behind Biden’s chosen successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, and nearly 90 percent of Democratic voters surveyed said he made the right choice in a recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS. The media limelight has shifted to Harris, the new presumptive Democratic nominee, and what her presidency would look like. And Democrats have been able to refocus with renewed enthusiasm on their task at hand, which is beating former President Donald Trump.

That’s left Biden suddenly in the role of elder statesman. Under extraordinary circumstances just months before the 2024 election, he’s unexpectedly fulfilled his 2020 promise to become a “bridge” to the next generation of leadership.

“I decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” Biden said in his speech. “It is the best way to unite our nation.”

Now that he’s done so, the question arises: What, if anything, is left for an outgoing president to do?

Biden himself insists that his work is not done, and made it clear Wednesday night that he wants to tie up loose ends on policy. For instance, he promised to continue his efforts to protect democracy, at home and abroad. And he’s vowed to deliver a ceasefire in Gaza before he leaves office.

But beyond Biden’s legacy — and the needs of the country — there’s still a campaign going on. So what role can he play in both?

Strategists and pollsters agree: Biden can be useful to Harris on the campaign trail.

Biden clearly thinks so too. On Monday, he said at a campaign event in Delaware via teleconference, “I’m going to be on the road, and I’m not going anywhere.” He reiterated his support for Harris Wednesday night: “She’s tough; she’s capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country.”

Chuck Rocha, a former senior adviser for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2020 campaign, said that Biden has an opportunity to help Harris with union members and white working-class voters in Pennsylvania and Michigan — groups that helped power his 2020 victory.

Evan Roth Smith, lead pollster for Blueprint, said that Biden also needs to speak to the voters who have been most loyal to him, even over the course of the last month, and tell them that it’s important that they not just turn out to vote for Harris, but knock on doors on her behalf.

Fernand Amandi, a Democratic pollster, said that Biden can reassert the successes of his administration as a “political wind behind the sails of the Kamala campaign,” emphasizing her role in getting things done.

But Harris also has the unusual opportunity to get a second chance at a first impression and to define herself outside of being Biden’s vice president. Voters don’t associate her as much with the issues on which they rated the administration poorly, like inflation and immigration, Roth Smith said.

“So she has this important opportunity to distance herself a little bit,” he said. “It’s important to not squander that and not overly tie her to Biden.”

Biden also risks generating further questions about whether or not he should continue as president until the end of his term if he participates in the kinds of campaign events in which he has proven more likely to commit verbal flubs, Amandi said. Though Amandi added that he believes Biden wouldn’t complete his term if the president and his doctors didn’t think him capable, Republicans have recently argued that Biden is not fit for office and should step down now.

“There was a lot of pressure on Biden to get out there, particularly following the debate performance, and do the kinds of events that he was less comfortable doing,” Roth Smith said. “He doesn’t need to do those kinds of events anymore … We don’t necessarily need him all over the campaign trail.”

That’s especially the case given that, soon, Harris will have another major surrogate on her team in the form of her vice presidential candidate. Once she chooses a running mate, “there will literally be three people who can help bring this thing home for November for the Democrats,” two of which — Harris and her vice presidential pick — can provide “a fresh-faced contrast to Donald Trump,” Rocha said.

Essentially, the move for Biden experts say, is for him to help out Harris where he can, but not overexpose himself. Biden seemed to recognize Wednesday that it was time for him to take something of a step back. “I know there is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life,” he said. “There is also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices. Yes, younger voices. That time and place is now.”

Strategists and pollsters told me that Biden should focus on being president for the remainder of his time in office, and as he noted in his speech, that’s what he intends to do.

“An important role for the president is to be this statesman, to show that Democrats can govern,” Roth Smith said.

Being competent, while finding opportunities to remind voters of the accomplishments of his administration — from the Inflation Reduction Act to the bipartisan infrastructure law — is one of the best ways he can support Harris.

“The Biden-Harris administration has a fantastic story to tell,” Amandi said. “It was a story that had been undermined by the legitimate concerns about whether or not the president could continue another four years.”

Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said that “Biden’s ability to do anything truly substantive is muted” given that he faces a divided Congress and election season is in full swing. But there are certain things that the president can do unilaterally.

For one, Americans are depending on his vast foreign policy experience at a tenuous moment for the Middle East and Europe. In his speech, he said he would seek to “bring peace and security to the Middle East” and keep rallying a coalition of nations to stop the Russian takeover of Ukraine, bolstering NATO and US allies in the Pacific. All that may not be achievable in five months, but he can work on making visible progress.

Biden may also look for domestic policy wins on issues that had dogged his candidacy, including immigration and inflation, which seems to be improving in time for the Federal Reserve to likely cut interest rates later this year. He can also highlight accomplishments on lesser-known, but still incredibly popular policies such as negotiating decreases in drug prices for Americans on Medicare. On Wednesday, he highlighted proposed Supreme Court reforms and his cancer “moonshot” among his priorities.

And as the administration makes progress, Biden needs to make sure he is “sharing the stage,” Roth Smith said.

“If there is going to be a great inflation report or a consumer confidence report, [Harris] needs to get credit for that,” he added.

That also serves the dual purpose of solidifying Biden’s legacy and increasing his approval rating, which Kondik said is also helpful to Harris.

“I think President Biden will leave office in January with significantly higher approval ratings because the one obstacle to judging him in the context of his success has now been removed, which is the concern that he would seek reelection at an age where his physical limitations wouldn’t allow him to continue,” Amandi said.

The stakes are still high for Democrats. Biden’s remaining time in office has the potential to lay the groundwork for a smooth transition to another Democratic administration that could protect the policies he set in motion. But as Biden himself has put it, before anyone — even Harris — can take over, he has to “finish the job.”