His warnings about the threat to democracy posed by Trump and “MAGA Republicans” have lost some punch through sheer repetition. In one breath, he painted a picture of a nation on the brink: “This will be the first presidential election since January 6. On that day we almost lost everything about who we are as a country, and that threat is still very much alive.” Yet moments later, he pivoted to unabashed American exceptionalism: “Name me a country in the world that doesn’t think we’re the leading nation in the world.” This whiplash-inducing contrast between impending doom and unparalleled greatness seemed designed to both frighten and flatter the audience, but it came across as confused and contradictory.

Biden takes a lot of pride in his accomplishments around unions and worker protections, and he went out of his way to assure the crowd that he was still their guy: “I’ve got five months left in my presidency. I’ve got a lot to do. I intend to get it done.” Is he worried that Harris could wreck what he considers his legacy as the first “picket-crossing president?” The speech certainly gave that impression at times, as Biden played up his own record while only grudgingly acknowledging Harris as his successor. “All this talk about how I’m angry at all those people who said I should step down: that’s not true,” he insisted, as if still trying to convince himself.

The President’s speech contained further boasts, some of which teetered into hyperbole. “When Trump left office,” he claimed, “Europe and Nato were in tatters.” He then proceeded to take credit for more or less single-handedly repairing these relationships: “I spent about 190 hours in total with my counterparts as heads of state in Europe to strengthen Nato…[and] we united Europe.” Such grandiose claims not only stretch credulity, but also raise questions about whether Biden trusts Harris and her running mate Tim Walz to maintain these purported diplomatic triumphs.

To his credit, Biden did manage one moment of disarming candour, acknowledging: “I’ve been blessed a million times in return. I’ve been too young to be in the Senate because I wasn’t 30 yet and now I’m too old to stay as president.” It was a rare flash of self-awareness in a speech that otherwise seemed designed to remind voters of Biden’s centrality to American politics over the past half-century. Of course, he did concede that “selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made before I became our nominee… and it was the best decision I made my whole career.” Yet this endorsement only came after half an hour of primarily self-focused rhetoric, making it feel more like an afterthought than a central theme.

In the end, Biden’s DNC address was less a graceful passing of the torch than a self-centred attempt to remain in the spotlight. Given his impending retirement from public life, his desire to cement his place in history is understandable. But in clinging so tightly to past glories, he undermined Harris’s efforts to chart her own course as the Democrats’ new standard-bearer — something she hasn’t helped by slowly unveiling her own platform. It was a speech that looked backward more than forward, an indulgence that fails to serve his party’s interests as it prepares for the end of Harris’s honeymoon phase and a bruising election fight to follow.

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Oliver Bateman is a historian and journalist based in Pittsburgh. He blogs, vlogs, and podcasts at his Substack, Oliver Bateman Does the Work

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