‘Union Joe’ Signs Off: Biden Passes Baton to Harris at DNC
President Joe Biden’s historic five-decade-plus career in Washington began its formal wind-down on Tuesday night as he delivered a 48-minute summation of his political legacy—and an endorsement of his Vice President, Kamala Harris, in her pursuit of the highest office.
Just one month ago, Biden still believed he’d be taking the stage this week as the Democratic nominee. He spoke to the moment he first decided to run for president, months into former president Donald Trump’s tenure, when a rally in Charlottesville, Va. showcased a disturbing unraveling of values that he believed threatened the very fabric of the country.
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“I could not stay in the sidelines,” the president said. And after four years on the field, he’s officially tapping out.
Throughout his political career, Biden has become known for his foreign policy chops, having served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a dozen years and as one of President Barack Obama’s most trusted advisors on international relations when he was vice president. “I know more foreign leaders by their first names…than anybody alive, just because I’m so damn old,” he quipped.
Biden spoke to some of his diplomatic achievements Tuesday, including the recent complex negotiation for the release of American hostages in Russia, along with the administration’s strengthening of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) following his predecessor’s routine disparagement of the alliance and European allies.
But the president’s most impassioned invocations Tuesday night indicated that he’s most proud of his accomplishments at home.
American industry
The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) authorized $1.2 trillion in spending on transportation and infrastructure, funding highways, bridges, roads, internet access, wastewater systems and more.
Meanwhile, the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act saw $369 billion devoted to energy security and climate change programs over the next decade, including investments in domestic energy production and manufacturing that the administration said would cut carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030. “The IRA will yield cumulative global economic benefits from reduced greenhouse gas pollution of over $5 trillion from the present to 2050,” according to the U.S. Treasury Department. “We passed the most significant climate law in the history of mankind,” Biden said.
“Donald Trump promised infrastructure week after week for four years, and he never built a damn thing,” he added. “Remember, when we came in office, we couldn’t get anything passed. But right now, we’re giving America an infrastructure decade, not week.”
The president spoke to modernizing roads, bridges, ports, airports, trains and buses. He also spoke to the CHIPS and Science Act, which has funded the expansion of semiconductor chip production in the U.S.
“American manufacturing is back,” he said, reporting that these policies and others have spurred the creation of 800,000 new manufacturing jobs across the country with the aim of reducing reliance on foreign markets like China for critical components.
“Our Republican friends and others made sure they go abroad to get the cheapest labor. We used to import products and export jobs,” he said. “Now, we export American products and create American jobs right here in America where jobs belong. With every new job, with every new factory, pride and hope is being brought back to communities throughout the country that were left behind.”
Living up to the title, ‘Union Joe’
The Commander in Chief generated the most raucous applause of the evening when he touted his pro-union stance—a defining tenet of his administration and a key point of pride in his political legacy.
“Wall Street didn’t build America—the middle class built America. And unions built the middle class,” he said. “It’s been my view since I came to the Senate. That’s why I’m proud to have been the first president to walk a picket line and be labeled the most pro-union president history—and I accepted.”
Chants of “Union Joe” rang out across the packed convention hall.
Biden encouraged Amazon workers in Alabama to vote in favor of joining a union in 2021, warning the corporation in a pointed video statement that there should be “no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda.” The show of support was a first for any American president, though workers ultimately voted against organizing.
A year later, the president launched The White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, and issued executive orders to improve working conditions on federal construction projects. And in 2023, he famously walked the picket line during the United Auto Workers strike.
The pro-union sentiment generated by the Biden administration has contributed to an atmosphere of enhanced organizing.
Throughout his term, the Teamsters union has taken on massive players in the logistics sector like DHL and UPS, while the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) battled for more than a year with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) to strike a deal for dockworkers at 29 West Coast ports last summer. That agreement was facilitated by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Meanwhile, the Amazon Labor Union launched in 2021, with workers at multiple Amazon warehouses and distribution centers across the nation holding union votes over the ensuing years. In March 2022, the first REI Co-op in New York voted to unionize, paving a path for nine other stores within the outdoor retailer’s network to do the same.
Taxes
Like Harris has done on the campaign trail, Biden took aim at Trump’s $2-trillion tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. “Trump has a new plan of $5 billion tax cuts corporations and the already wealthy,” he said, noting that the country’s billionaires currently see an average tax rate of 8.2 percent.
The president’s budget, released this spring, was focused on reforming those tax laws and forcing corporations and U.S. top earners to pay up. Biden’s plan would set the corporate tax rate at 28 percent and force all billionaires to pay at least 25 percent of their income in taxes.
“Kamala and Tim will make them pay their fair share,” Biden said.
Harris on Friday revealed the first glimpse into her plan for the economy, which included extending certain benefits from President Biden’s pandemic-era American Rescue Plan (ARP), enacted in 2021, like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and an expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC).
“I’ve got five months left in my presidency, and I’ve got a lot to do. I intend to get it done,” Biden concluded on Tuesday night in a speech that stretched past the midnight hour.
“It’s been the honor my lifetime to serve as your President. I love the job—but I love my country more.” Acknowledging the elephant in the room—that his age precludes him from seeking a second term—Biden threw the full weight of his support behind the Harris-Walz campaign. “Join me in promising your whole heart to this effort—it’s where my heart will be.”
“She’ll be a president respected by world leaders, because she already is,” he said of Harris. “She’ll be a president we can all be proud of. She will be a historic president who puts her stamp on America’s future.”