DNC Kicks Off as ‘Biden Appreciation Night’ in Chicago

President Joe Biden will “return home” on Monday night, reaching the end of his hero’s journey at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The lame-duck president will be the main event for the first night of the DNC, delivering a keynote speech that could be seen as the capstone to a 50-year political career that took him from being elected the youngest senator in U.S. history to its oldest president.

Although Biden would surely rather be traveling to Chicago to accept his party’s nomination for another four-year term, the Democrats will give him the second-best prize: a sure-fire opportunity to do what he hoped his campaign could and unite the party.

In the waning weeks of an unprecedented summer of political turmoil, Biden will be given the chance officially to pass the torch to Kamala Harris, framed as a national hero who put his country over his own self-interest (even if he didn’t want to).

When Biden steps onto the stage at the United Center Monday night, he will be hailed as a unifying figure — a long way from being criticized as the albatross around the neck of the Democratic party.

Less than a month ago, Biden was staring down his party’s elders in a game of chicken, refusing to withdraw from the race even as concerns about the 81-year-old’s ability to serve a second term reached critical mass in the aftermath of his disastrous debate performance on June 27.

“Biden will be greeted like the hero he is to most of his delegates,” political consultant Jay Townsend told Newsweek. “The general who led the effort to conquer an opposing force, brought some measure of peace and normalcy to a formerly occupied territory, who then had the wisdom to know it was time to pass the baton.”

But the hero’s welcome will be fleeting.

After Harris’ campaign gives Biden his moment in the sun, her team will move quickly away from the president, unlikely to give him anymore time in the spotlight as it ramps up a political operation determined to define a new era for the Democratic Party, political expert Steven Schier told Newsweek.

“Harris and the Democrats are intent on presenting themselves as the fresh new party of joy and change,” Schier said. “That requires a back row seat for Joe Biden.”

It’s a seat that Biden has, against his will, become increasingly familiar with. As the calls for him to step aside reached a crescendo last month, Biden made the unprecedented decision to leave the race on July 21, after weeks of insisting he was the only candidate who could defeat former President Donald Trump.

It was a move that has, at least so far, proven to the right one for the party. The immediate coalescing around Harris’ campaign has all but solved the Democrats’ enthusiasm problem, and polls are showing her with a small but growing lead over Trump, both nationally and in the most important battlegrounds.

Since his exit, Biden has not returned to the same busy schedule he kept, even when he was avoiding further speculations about his cognitive ability. The president had been recovering from COVID at the time of his announcement, which is why his team said the decision was tweeted out instead of broadcasted live. But even after he recovered, he’s stayed largely out of the public eye.

Last week, he held only two public events, which included his first appearance with Harris on the campaign trail since she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket. The week before, he held a single event.

“Biden only stepped down when every pathway forward for him was closed,” William Howell, the University of Chicago’s Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics, told Newsweek. “In this extraordinary moment of transition, then, his relationship to the Democratic Party – and with it, his historical legacy — remains complicated.”

Last week, Politico reported that Biden remains frustrated with the Democratic leaders who forced him to abandon his campaign, describing him as angry with longtime ally Nancy Pelosi for her “ruthlessness” in putting the election over their decades-long relationship.

Biden is also said to be harboring resentment toward former President Barack Obama, his old boss, for not directly voicing his concerns, as well as Senate Leader Chuck Schumer for his behind-the-scenes role in the messy persuasion campaign to get him to drop his bid. The president is not expected to stick around in Chicago past Monday, meaning he will not be in attendance for speeches from Obama, Harris and many others.

Nonetheless, Biden appeared cheerful as he made his first joint appearance with Harris since she replaced him, poking fun at his age and offering glowing praise of the vice president.

“I know I look 40, but I’m a little bit older,” Biden told the crowd at last Thursday’s rally. “Last time, I was too damn young because I was only 29 when I got elected. Now, I’m too damn old.”

Biden called Harris an “incredible partner” in helping him make the progress that he sought to achieve when he was elected as one of the youngest senators in history in 1972.

“She’s going to make one hell of a president,” Biden said.

In return, Harris said there was “a lot of love in this room for our president” and touted his achievements. But it’s unclear where Biden’s relationship within his party stands, now and after he leaves the White House in January.

“At times, Biden has appeared relaxed, gracious, and forward looking,” Howell said. “But we’re also hearing reports of him harboring resentments toward those who, in his mind, pushed him aside. And as the Democratic Party rallies behind Harris, questions remain about the longstanding efforts of Biden’s team to shield him from public scrutiny

Townsend said that when Biden exits the stage Monday night, “Everybody attending this convention will go sensing that victory is possible, salivating at the chance to forever rid the Republic of its greatest menace” in Donald Trump.

But to do so, Biden will have to step out of the limelight and “allow his apprentice to have her day in the sun, to introduce herself, define the stakes in the coming battle, and summon the troops to finish the work Biden has started.”