Aug. 20, 2024, 11:20 p.m.
CHICAGO—Sen. Tom Carper sees several parallels between himself and President Biden.
The two of them defeated powerful incumbents to ascend to the U.S. Senate. They both represented Delaware for decades in the upper chamber and chaired powerful committees.
And they are both stepping down from their roles next year, opting not to seek reelection.
“I used to joke with one of my former chiefs of staff who would ask, ‘At the end of the day, what do you want? What do you want out of all this?’ And I jokingly said, ‘I want to be beloved,'” Carper told National Journal in a sit-down interview at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago Monday night, just hours before Biden took the stage in a speech that had the marks of a farewell address.
Biden and Carper have been friends for decades. Carper first became familiar with Biden when he was a naval flight officer in Vietnam, and in a care package, received a copy of Time and Newsweek that had articles about Biden, who was just elected to the Senate at only 29 years old. Later, Biden encouraged Carper to become involved in politics in Delaware. Once they were both eventually in D.C., they would ride the train down to D.C. together nearly every day. Their families would also become friends: The day before Biden was selected to be Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008, he called Carper’s son on his first day of college with words of advice and guidance.
So when Biden was mulling dropping out just a few weeks ago—and only a few months ahead of November’s rematch against former President Trump—Carper said he offered words of advice to Biden’s team: “The people of Delaware, they’ve liked me. But I think they love me now” for deciding to pass the baton to Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who is running to replace Carper.
“He could have chosen to spend the next four years trying to convince people that he was not too old to serve, people waiting for him to trip coming down off of an airplane, not recognizing somebody's name, or he can cement his legacy, strengthen it, and walk away from this a bigger person than he ever would have been otherwise,” Carper said of Biden.
It’s that choice to step away that Carper says will cement the president’s legacy.
“I talk to people every day who say, ‘I love Joe Biden, and I'm so proud of him, that he's elected to step aside and to give Kamala a chance to run.’ Actually, he's a bigger person. He's not a smaller person; he's a bigger person because of this,” Carper said. “He will truly be beloved, not just within our party, but by independents and maybe a handful of Republicans as well.”
Former GOP Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut, who is attending the convention as an anti-Trump Republican, told National Journal he believes Biden, who is 81 years old, should have never run again. But he says he believes that Biden stepping aside “will be wonderful” for the rest of his presidency and legacy.
“He can finish the next five months or so focusing on being president, and he will have handed the torch off to someone who can continue to do what he's doing as a younger person, with all the vitality that you need in a president,” Shays said.
Young voters seeing Harris—who would not only be the first woman, but the first Black woman and first Asian American to occupy the Oval Office—could be crucial for Democrats’ success come November.
Parker Short, the president of the Young Democrats of Georgia, told National Journal he believes many young voters have “a lot of respect, a lot of appreciation, a lot of recognition for the fact that Joe Biden understood the time that we are in history and put himself aside and put the country first.”
“I know young people are excited to elect Kamala Harris because she is a historic candidate. She is an exciting candidate. She is a unique candidate who can very, very competently, masterfully prosecute the case against Donald Trump,” Short said.
This convention is the first time since 1968—when the event was also in Chicago—that a president has decided not to seek reelection after one term in office, and the latest it’s ever been done.
And that fact was palpable in the air on the first night of the convention Monday, when Biden’s remarks left some delegates on the floor in tears.
“‘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,’” Biden said, quoting part of the song called “American Anthem” to a sea of green “Thank you, Joe” signs and arena-wide chants.
He also shared those lyrics more than three years ago during his inauguration in 2021.
Jeanna Repass, chairwoman for the Kansas Democrats, said her feelings about Biden dropping out are “mixed.”
“I'm very sad, because he's such a patriot and we love him, but I'm so proud and I'm excited [for Harris]," Repass said. "I think it cements his legacy, because it's exactly who he's always been, someone who put the country first. And so I think all of his policies now have a better chance of standing and being solidified because of his choice to replace himself.”
Harris’ victory will be crucial to Biden’s legacy in terms of policy, as Trump has suggested reversing much of it. Many delegates and surrogates have focused on those accomplishments, including the infrastructure bill, gun-safety legislation, a technology-manufacturing bill, and more.
“I think there is no better way to solidify his legacy than to have the vice president take over the reins. And so I think he did a really good job of that because—let's be very honest, a lot of his policies would have been thrown out or reversed” if Trump wins, Repass added.
Repass said Biden’s decision, in particular, may resonate for rural voters “who want people to walk the walk and not just talk the talk."
"And I think by President Biden [stepping aside], I think he has solidified with them his legacy and his policies, and that he meant what he said.”
Delegates pointed to Biden’s reluctant decision to bow out as a stark contrast to Trump, who opted to run again despite questions about his age and acuity even from some in his own party.
“There's one person who really believed that he was still fit and ready to serve and to lead, but he saw the risk and said, ‘I'm going to put the country first,’" Repass said, "and someone else who has no conscientious awareness of how unfit he is to lead or serve and is refusing to step down for the betterment of the country. Donald Trump is running because it's what's best for Donald Trump. In Kansas, we have a specific kind of conservatism that just says, 'We want you to be honest.'”
Rep. Gabe Amo, the first Biden staffer to be elected to the House, said that while “a president Harris is not a President Biden, there's a continuation in the building upon” his time in the White House.
Amo stressed that a Harris administration will be “about building a bridge to the future."
"But once you're on the other side of that bridge, it's up to the vice president as the president to take us forward.”
