MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Biden did not want to end his bid for reelection, but he said the stakes were just too high to risk it.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America's future all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing, can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition. So I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The president spoke of his decision to step aside and also asserted that he still has work to do in his final six months behind the Oval Office desk from which he addressed the nation.
MARTIN: Joining us now to talk more about this is NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith. Up again early after a long night, Tam?
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Yeah. Good morning.
MARTIN: Thanks for doing that. So what was Biden trying to accomplish with this address?
KEITH: Well, this was a monumental moment for Biden, marking the end, or at least the beginning of the end, of a very long career in public life. And his family sat lining the walls of the Oval Office as he spoke, the first lady, his grandkids, his kids. He spoke, as Steve said, from behind the Resolute desk, this place of very serious presidential addresses. And this was about explaining the very difficult decision he made to step aside and putting it in a noble light. He was also making an appeal to the American people to think about what kind of country they want. At the very end, Biden delivered this emotional expression of gratitude, saying that he had given his heart and soul to the nation over 50 years in public life and has been blessed with the love and support of the American people.
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BIDEN: I hope you have some idea how grateful I am to all of you. The great thing about America is, here, kings and dictators do not rule, the people do.
KEITH: This wasn't the place for the overtly political language you would hear at a campaign rally. So he never said former President Trump's name, but the subtext was quite clear.
MARTIN: It was clear, but, you know, this speech had the feeling of a farewell address, Tam, but he still has six months left in office. What did he say he wants to do with the time he has left?
KEITH: You know, it really felt like the oxygen drained out of his presidency when he announced he was dropping out of the race for reelection. But practically speaking, this term was already in a lame duck phase. His biggest achievements happened before Democrats lost control of the House in 2023. So a lot of what he can do in these final months is implementation, distributing funds for infrastructure and climate projects, cementing regulations. He said he is going to keep fighting for reproductive rights and civil rights. He's going to keep working on the economy and trying to lower costs, and he'll speak out against extremism and political violence. And, of course, he is still trying very hard to get a cease-fire for hostages deal in Gaza.
MARTIN: Tam, we don't have a lot of time to talk about this, but at the end of the day, how do you think his legacy will be defined?
KEITH: Well, you know, there's been a lot of praise from Democrats about Biden's selflessness since his announcement on Sunday. But the real judgment comes in November. By realizing he needed to step aside at this very late date, he foreclosed any possibility of a real primary. Right now, Democrats are very excited about Vice President Harris as the likely nominee, but this race is still very close. If Harris wins, Biden will be remembered as the rare president who put his party and country ahead of his ego. If she loses, then he is both the person who removed Trump from office and ushered him back in.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Tamara Keith, waking up early again after another late night. Tam, thank you.
KEITH: You're welcome.
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MARTIN: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the U.S. Congress again yesterday.
INSKEEP: He's given addresses to Congress four different times, which is more than any foreign leader in history. He's been around for a while. Netanyahu's latest yesterday included flourishes often seen in a presidential State of the Union address. He told stories of guests in the audience to illustrate and defend Israel's war against Hamas.
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PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: For the forces of civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together.
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INSKEEP: Today, the prime minister meets President Biden at the White House and also meets with Vice President Harris. How she engages Netanyahu matters more now that she's running for president.
MARTIN: NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid is with us now to tell us more about that. Good morning, Asma.
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So I wanted to ask you how you characterize the vice president's policies on Gaza. I mean, obviously, she's the vice president, so you'd assume that her policies would have to be in lockstep with the president's. But what would you say about how she approaches the issue?
KHALID: Well, the substance of what she's saying is similar to Biden. But she differs in style and tone. A Harris aide did describe her as having a, quote, "unwavering commitment to the security of Israel." I also talked with an adviser from Harris' days in the Senate, Halie Soifer, who told me what it was like at a recent White House event, in which she saw the vice president take on a real leadership role in condemning the use of sexual violence in the October 7 attacks. But really, Michel, the real difference from Biden is how Harris talks about people in Gaza. Take a listen to her comments from this past March in Selma, Ala.
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: What we are seeing every day in Gaza is devastating.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Yes.
HARRIS: We have seen reports of families eating leaves or animal feed.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Jesus.
HARRIS: Women giving birth to malnourished babies with little or no medical care.
KHALID: I've spoken with multiple people who've remarked to me that Harris shows a greater degree of empathy for Palestinian civilians than they have heard publicly from Biden.
MARTIN: Have these words affected how voters see her?
KHALID: Well, people I've spoken with in the Arab American community say that Harris is not viewed as being as toxic as Biden. I was speaking to Ruwa Romman. She's a Democratic Georgia state legislator, a Palestinian American, and she put it this way.
RUWA ROMMAN: I can tell you right now that if I had, for example, tried to go to a mosque or Arab community event and urge them to vote for Joe Biden, I would never be invited back. The anger was so deep, and the hurt was so deep, even for me. I tell people that. And I think people would at least be open to hearing from her and to let her make her case.
KHALID: And some Democrats who voted uncommitted during the primaries told me that they're willing to give Harris a chance. I mean, to be clear, they are not saying they will definitively vote for her. But there's a possibility. I'll also say that Harris was one of the earlier people in the administration to show a less dismissive response to some of the protests here at home.
MARTIN: Today, she is meeting separately with Israel's prime minister, separately from Biden. What do you expect from her meeting?
KHALID: What I'm watching for is how closely she sticks to the president. You know, she inherits this problem now, and her campaign. And following the attack in October that killed more than 1,200 people, there are now more than 39,000 Palestinians who've been killed. And there's still no cease-fire. And some people will blame her because she is a part of this administration. She has a real delicate balancing act where she's going to try not to alienate supporters of Israel, who make up a key part of the Democratic Party, but she's also trying to win back some of the young, progressive, Brown and Black voters whom Biden alienated with some of his decisions about this war.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Asma Khalid. Asma, thank you.
KHALID: Good to talk to you.
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MARTIN: Vice President Harris faces another fundamental challenge. To win the election, the likely Democratic nominee will have to hold together a broad coalition, and they have some very different views on some issues. President Biden managed this in 2020. But the coalition has frayed, as we've just heard, and Harris is a different figure. Her challenge becomes plain when it comes to her record in law enforcement. My co-host Steve Inskeep has been talking with voters in western Pennsylvania. Steve, what'd you find out?
INSKEEP: Well, some contrasting opinions of a big part of Harris' resume, her history as a San Francisco prosecutor and California attorney general. She raised this in her first campaign event while running for president, talking of Donald Trump and saying, as a prosecutor, she knew what a predator was or a fraudster. How voters take that message? Depends on who you talk to. On NPR's MORNING EDITION yesterday, we heard Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling, a Democratic party activist in the Pittsburgh suburbs who really likes her new candidate.
KATHLEEN MADONNA-EMMERLING: My first thought was, this is the ideal suburban candidate, because she straddles the line between being approachable, relatable - joyful, even - while also having incredible public safety credentials. Because often in the suburbs, people want someone who is pro-public safety, pro-police.
INSKEEP: Because many people in her suburb have military or police backgrounds.
MADONNA-EMMERLING: And when you can say, this is a clear case of a prosecutor against a felon, it's a home run.
INSKEEP: Although, for some people in the Democratic coalition, Michel, this is a more complicated subject.
MARTIN: And I can cosign that because I have, as they say, people up that way where you are.
INSKEEP: Right.
MARTIN: So what is another way people see the vice president's record?
INSKEEP: As a potential mark against her. I also went into central Pittsburgh this week to the Hill District, which is a historically Black neighborhood, and talked with Adrian Dilworth (ph). She said she had mixed feelings about Harris. We spoke here while dodging cars in a grocery store parking lot.
ADRIAN DILWORTH: I think they should've put out a broader net for candidates to see who could be actually the best and not just, you know, like, OK, we're just going to push the VP for the position.
INSKEEP: Why do you have mixed feelings about Vice President Harris?
DILWORTH: Just some of her history. From...
INSKEEP: Here, we better get away from this - I don't want to...
DILWORTH: No, it's OK.
INSKEEP: It would be bad for the interview if you were run over in the middle of the interview.
DILWORTH: Yeah, no, we're not going to have that.
INSKEEP: All right.
DILWORTH: From just some of what I'm hearing from her history of some of the people that she's had incarcerated in the past.
INSKEEP: She was referring to part of Harris' record as a prosecutor. She fought to put people in prison. Sometimes she clashed with civil rights groups and activists over her decisions, and she's been attacked over the years on the left for this. Now the attack is being repeated by Republicans. I guess you could say that Republicans are just trolling here, but they are also explicitly seeking some of the Black vote for Donald Trump.
MARTIN: And you can see where that might resonate with some people in a community that has had this complicated, as you say, relationship with law enforcement.
INSKEEP: Oh, yeah. I've interviewed people in that same neighborhood in past years. And I once met a voter who was 22 and said she'd already been jailed twice for things that she said she didn't do. So to hold together that Democratic coalition, Harris needs law and order people and also people who are skeptical of law and order as it is sometimes practiced in the United States. And we can expect her record to be scrutinized. Although, I should add, in that same neighborhood I also found people who were very eager to vote for Harris, excited to vote for a woman, and they were organizing with a new intensity.
MARTIN: That is Steve Inskeep in Pittsburgh. Steve, thank you.
INSKEEP: Glad to do it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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