Biden cries as he passes torch to Harris, ‘I gave my best to you’

The US president dabbed his eyes as he walked on stage and embraced his daughter, Ashley, who introduced him to cheering crowds.

“I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you,” he told delegates, in a speech that lasted almost an hour.

“For 50 years, like many of you, I gave my heart and soul to our nation, and I’ve been blessed a million times in return,” he said.

“I can honestly say I’m more optimistic about the future than I was when I was elected as a 29-year-old United States senator.”

The DNC, which takes place this week in Chicago, will see Kamala Harris accept the party’s nomination after Mr Biden’s decision to quit the presidential race.

On Monday evening, his daughter appeared to tell him not to cry as she welcomed him on stage.

He stood with tears shining in his eyes as the audience cheered for him, thanking them several times.

The speech by Mr Biden aimed to define his legacy as president, as he prepares to leave the White House four years earlier than hoped.

The 81-year-old was ultimately forced off of the ballot by senior Democrats on July 21, after months of concern about his age and health.

The final straw for many of Mr Biden’s was his debate against Donald Trump in June.

Mr Biden used many of his favourite one-liners during the speech, telling delegates that America is at a “turning point…one of those rare moments in history” and that he thinks “our best days are not behind us…they’re ahead of us”.

“The middle class built America, and the unions built the middle class,” he said, reusing another of his most common lines.

He recounted the racial violence in Charlottesville that led to him running for president in 2020 and denied being angry about standing back from the race.

“With all this talk about how I’m angry, all those people said I should step down, that’s not true,” he said.

“We need to preserve our democracy in 2024.”

Mr Biden also used the speech to attack Trump, his opponent during both the presidential election he fought, on various policy areas and accuse him of endangering American democracy.

In a section on the southern US border, he said: “I never thought I’d stand before a crowd of Democrats and refer to a former president as a liar so many times.

“I’m not trying to be funny. It’s sad. Trump continues to lie about the border.

“Here’s what he won’t tell you: Trump killed the strongest bipartisan border deal in the history of the United States.”

On foreign policy, Mr Biden burnished his credentials on conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, arguing that he had prevented Vladimir Putin from taking Kyiv in three days.

But he also acknowledged that “a lot of those [pro-Palestinian] protesters on the street have a point” because “a lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides”.

The speech mentioned Ms Harris several times, but focused mainly on Mr Biden’s legacy in the White House, including his work on prescription drug prices, infrastructure and education.

He described her as the next president of the United States, telling delegates: “Selecting Kamala was the first decision I made as our nominee and the best I made in my whole career.”

He said she would be “a president respected by world leaders because she already is” and a “historic president who puts her stamp on America’s future”.

“I promise I will be the best volunteer Harris and Walz have ever seen,” he said.

Jill Biden, who had given her own speech earlier in the evening, joined her husband on stage at the end.

Speaking about Mr Biden’s decision to pass the torch to Ms Harris, the first lady said she “saw him dig deep into his soul and decide no longer to seek re-election”.

Polls show that Ms Harris has recovered from Mr Biden’s poor ratings since taking over the nomination, and is now leading Donald Trump in some swing states where he previously had a significant advantage.

National polls generally show Trump is trailing Ms Harris by between one and two percentage points.

She has launched a new economic platform, picked up support from black and Latino voters and persuaded some sceptical young voters to return to the party.

Monday’s first session of the convention also saw speeches from Hillary Clinton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Andy Beshear, a popular Democratic governor.

Ms Clinton used her speech to attack Trump, to whom she lost the 2016 election.

“It is no surprise, is it, that he is lying about Kamala’s record, he’s mocking her name and her laugh?” she said. “Sounds familiar…but we have him on the run now.”

She compared Ms Harris’s White House run to the campaigns of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to be elected to the US Congress, and Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to be nominated for vice president.

The convention will also see speeches from Barack and Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, and Ms Harris herself on Thursday evening.