Biden to deliver farewell speech, capping 50-year political career

President Biden plans to deliver a prime-time farewell address to the nation on Wednesday, ending his five-decade political career just days before leaving a post he has long revered and won’t leaves only reluctantly.

The White House would not disclose what Mr. Biden plans to say in his speech, scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern time. But in his final months, he sought to cement his legacy as a transformative president who stabilized domestic politics while strengthening American leadership abroad, who led the country out of a pandemic, made historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy and has worked to strengthen democratic institutions, both nationally and globally.

Whatever image the president seeks to project, it comes against a backdrop in which he is leaving office deeply unpopular and handing over the reins to a successor, Donald J. Trump, whom he despises and has told many times unfit to hold power.

Even the location of the speech, behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office, is a reminder that Mr. Biden is not leaving as he might have wished. His last prime-time speech was the 11 minutes he spent in July explaining why he dropped out of the presidential race under pressure from his own party amid mounting questions about his age and fitness. to another mandate.

Since Mr. Biden left the race and especially since Mr. Trump’s election victory in November, the president has struggled to stay in the spotlight.

“Farewell speeches are challenging because they aim to end an era where most of the country has already moved on to the next one,” said Robert Schlesinger, author of the book “White House Ghosts: Presidents and Theirs.” . Speechwriters.