Joe Biden’s historic and emotional farewell speech was bumped from prime-time TV, prompting disbelief and anger—and sparking various theories from viewers.
The keynote address, in which the elderly president officially passed on the baton to Kamala Harris and wound up a 50-plus year career in politics, was delivered in the middle of the night. He began at almost 10:30 p.m. local time at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Illinois, on Monday, which meant those hoping to watch until he finished speaking had to stay up until after midnight on the East Coast.
Biden was supposed to lead the Democrats to the polls in November’s elections, with the 81-year-old facing off against the only marginally younger 78-year-old Republican Donald Trump. Both sides accused each other of not being fit to stand, but concerns from Biden’s own camp following a series of falls, memory lapses and public gaffes, saw the increasingly frail-looking president finally agree to step aside to allow Harris to top the party’s ticket instead.
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Biden’s speech should have been the keynote address as the serving president, but it came too late on a weeknight for many viewers. The timing sparked shock in some quarters, with several viewers seeing it as a final humiliation for an American president being ushered away from power. Others said it was done deliberately by the Democrats in a bid to keep him out of the spotlight.
Biden wept as he was introduced to the stage and he was visibly emotional during parts of his speech. He insisted he wasn’t angry about dropping out of the presidential race and vowed to be the “best volunteer” Harris has on her team. “It’s been an honor of my lifetime. I love the job. But I love my country more,” he said.
But his words were missed by many, and the timing of the speech appeared to have sparked more commentary than the content.
The New York Post ran a picture of Biden on the front page with the headline: “Past his Bedtime,” adding that the Democrats had delivered a “final insult” by pushing his speech back. The story said “most people had tuned out” of the coverage by the time he began speaking at around 11:30 p.m. in that time zone.
However, some viewers pointed out that other parts of the country were still able to watch Biden’s remarks at a reasonable time. Several users on X (formerly Twitter) grumbled that too much fuss was being made about the East Coast.
One wrote: “i would like to remind members of the East Coast media that more than half of all Americans—including those in Chicago—do not live in your time zone… nobody other than East Coast journos will care. Normies will stay up, or not, or stream at any damn time.”
Others didn’t feel the lateness of the hour mattered. One wrote: “Watching and seeing all the comments on Twitter abt the night running long, Biden pushed out of prime time, etc. Clearly scheduling has been muffed a bit. But the speeches have been consistent and on key. All seems fine to me. The people waiting to hear from Biden are D diehards.”
Others disagreed, saying the whole country should have been able to watch the outgoing president’s swan song live and that many would now never see the speech in its entirety. One viewer took to X to say: “I know My Wife, she would’ve sat here and enjoyed the speech, but she won’t go back and watch it on YouTube. Multiply her by about 10 million people, I’m just saying it’s a shame.”
Some confused viewers posted about the delay while waiting for Biden to appear. Mehdi Hasan, editor of Zeteo News, posted on X: “Am I the only one who doesn’t understand these timings? What happened to Joe Biden giving a primetime televised farewell address? It’s approaching 11pm ET on a weekday night.” Another viewer added: “First night after 11pm savage.”
Much discussion took place about why the speech had taken place so late at night.
One wrote: “This is the plan. Hide [… Biden] away from the limelight.” Another added: “Well of course they were going to do that. Biden speaking at prime time could be a disaster. They don’t want to remind people that they tried to pass off a declining old man as fit for duty and simultaneously bring up questions why is still president in his state.”
And the statistician and author Nate Silver wrote on X: “The media is very East Coast focused though, you’ve gotta be pretty naive to think the prolonged DNC tonight is for any reason other than diminishing Biden’s visibility.”
The media is very East Coast focused though, you’ve gotta be pretty naive to think the prolonged DNC tonight is for any reason other than diminishing Biden’s visibility. https://t.co/LSd5DJzrON
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) August 20, 2024
Some Americans felt the Democrats had betrayed their leader. One viewer wrote: “Why is DNC doing to this guy? First they stole his Presidency, then successfully conducted a coup, installed Kamala as the chosen candidate, now they promised he would speak prime time but makes him wait, way past his bedtime. I hope he’ll be okay to speak.” Another viewer wrote: “Dude….he’s the f****** President giving a farewell speech. They did him dirty.”
While Axios journalist Alex Thompson said on X: “One longtime Biden aide texts: ‘This is awful. He literally set up a campaign and handed it over to them—do they have to cut him out of prime time?'”
A statement circulated to the media attributable to convention officials, said: “Because of the raucous applause interrupting speaker after speaker, we ultimately skipped elements of our program to ensure we could get to President Biden as quickly as possible so that he could speak directly to the American people. We are proud of the electric atmosphere in our convention hall and proud that our convention is showcasing the broad and diverse coalition behind the Harris-Walz ticket throughout the week on and off the stage.”
Newsweek contacted representatives of the Democrats electoral campaign by email seeking further comment.
