Outgoing President Joe Biden said he was “not going anywhere” a day before he leaves the White House – despite being forced out of the race by Democrats over concerns about his cognitive skills.
The 82-year-old commander-in-chief made the comments as he spoke a day earlier at the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina, to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
During his speech, Biden praised himself for issuing more commutations and individual pardons than “any other president in American history.”
He also claimed he was trying to “end the federal death penalty” by reducing the sentences of many death row inmates to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Biden said those whose sentences he commuted “are serving disproportionately harsh, lengthy and harsh sentences for non-violent drug offenses,” adding that he showed “mercy” to those who did their time or served a significant amount of time and “significant remorse and rehabilitation,” according to Fox News.
“These decisions are difficult,” the president told the congregation.
“Some have never been done before, but from my experience with my conscience, I believe that bringing justice and mercy together requires [us] as a nation to bear witness, to see people's pain, not to look away and do the work, to give purpose to pain, to show that we can bring a person, a nation, to a day of redemption to take.
“We know that the fight to redeem the soul of this nation is difficult and ongoing,” Biden continued.
Outgoing President Joe Biden vowed to remain in the public eye after leaving the White House
“This is the coast between danger and opportunity. But faith, faith teaches us that the America of our dreams is always closer than we think. That is the faith we must hold on to in the coming Saturdays.
'We have to persevere [to] heap. We must stay involved. [We] we must always continue to have faith in a better day.'
It was then that Biden made his promise.
“I'm not going anywhere,” he said. “I'm not kidding.”
“To the people of South Carolina, thank you for keeping the faith,” the president concluded. “It has been the honor of my life to serve as your president.
“As I conclude this journey with you, I am as passionate about our work as I was when I was elected as a 29-year-old boy,” he said, arguing: “I am by no means tired. '
But the outgoing president had lost the support of his Democratic colleagues after a disastrous debate against newly elected President Donald Trump last summer.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi even told Biden in the aftermath that she was willing to go public with her concerns that he would not be able to defeat Trump in the presidential election.
The president made the comments Sunday during a speech at the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina
The president later admitted that Pelosi's concerns about Biden's potential impact on the Democratic campaigns prompted him to resign.
“Some of my Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives and the Senate thought I was going to hurt them in the races,” Biden told CBS News Sunday Morning host Robert Costa.
“And I was concerned that if I stayed in the race, that would be the subject – you would interview me about why did Nancy Pelosi say [something] … and I thought it would be a real distraction,” he said.
Biden will now leave the Oval Office on Monday while Trump is sworn in.
