Joe Biden has been criticised for failing to give the US public any new information in his live address to the nation from the Oval office last night.
The 81-year-old leader announced over the weekend that he would no longer be running for a second term on Sunday, passing the campaign on to his Vice President, Kamala Harris.
Addressing the US for the first time since the announcement, Biden said it had been the “honour of his life” to serve as President, but is his decision to step down was “not about him”.
He also claimed that it is “now the time to pass the torch to the younger generation.”
The US president Joe Biden spoke to America
GB News
Speaking to GB News, Professor of US Foreign and Security Policy at the University of Birmingham, David Dunn said: “What we saw today was the admission that the narrative has changed.
“I mean, it’s slightly odd that he spent that 11-minute meeting saying how wonderful he is and what a great reputation he’s leaving behind.
“There has been a clamour over the last three or four weeks since the debate telling him that his time is up. [He was told] he needs to go for the good of the country and the good of the party.
“It was an odd situation, also saying that it is the time to pass the torch to the next generation. Well, he’s still got six more months to go.
“People thought that he would use the occasion to step down as president. What he didn’t do, of course, was do that.
“All he did was to use this great announcement to announce that he wasn’t going to be his party’s candidate for the election. We already knew that.
The professor said that Biden’s speech was “slightly odd”
GB News
“So we didn’t learn a great deal from this TV interview that he gave, other than the fact that he’s been sitting on the beach for the last three weeks.”
He added: “He looks certainly more tanned than he did when he gave the debate three and a half weeks ago.”
Biden ended his bid to be re-elected as pressure mounted on him to step aside following a series of mistakes including accidentally calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the name of Vladimir Putin.
He also performed disastrously in the first election debate against Republican nominee Donald Trump, leading to Democrats calling his performance a “slow motion car crash”.
Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race over the weekend
REUTERS
Biden’s term in office ends at noon on January 20, 2025, but some have called for him to resign immediately.
Biden added in his speech that he felt his record as president “merited a second term” but that “nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy”.
He said he endorsed US Vice-President Kamala Harris to unite their fellow Democrats and the country.