Biden speaks to campaign staff as he passes the torch to Kamala: ‘We’re still fighting in this fight together’

In his first remarks since he ended his presidential campaign, President Joe Biden spoke remotely to campaign staff and supporters as Kamala Harris joined headquarters in Delaware to launch her bid for the Democratic nomination.

“I know yesterday’s news was surprising and, it was hard for you to hear, but it was the right thing to do,” said Biden, who had announced that he was ending his re-election campaign and throwing his support behind Harris in the race against Donald Trump.

“The name is changed on top of the ticket, but the mission hasn’t changed at all,” he told supporters in Wilmington on Monday. “And by the way, I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be out there to campaign with her, with Kamala. I’m going to be working like hell.”

Biden, who has been isolating after being diagnosed with Covid-19 last week, promised to be “fully engaged” with Harris’s campaign as he finishes out the next six months of his administration. “We’re still fighting in this fight together. I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

In her first stump speech as the likely Democratic nominee, Harris hailed Biden’s legacy in office, promised to unite the Democratic Party around her campaign, and took aim at her Republican rival, framing Trump as a career criminal up against her history as a top law enforcement official in California.

As a former prosecutor, she “took on perpetrators of all kinds”, including “predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” she said.

“So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type,” she added.

Harris declared her support for restoring constitutional rights to abortion care, combatting the proliferation of high-powered firearms, reviving the Voting Rights Act, and dismantling the Project 2025 framework bolstering Trump’s campaign – all key elements of Biden’s now-finished campaign.

“Our campaign has always been about two different versions of what we see as the future of our country,” Harris said. “Two different visions for the future of our country, one focused on the future, the other focused on the past. Donald Trump wants to take our country backward to a time before many of our fellow Americans had full freedoms and rights, but we believe in a brighter future that makes room for all Americans.”

Republican officials have called on Biden to resign from the presidency after he dropped out of the race, and Trump and his allies have put forward baseless arguments that he was never sick with Covid at all.

The president’s endorsement of Harris on Sunday was followed by a wave of support from Democratic officials and delegates who will cast their vote for Harris as the party’s nominee at next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

More than 28,000 people have signed up to volunteer for the first time after Biden left the race and endorsed Harris, according to the campaign.

The campaign also hauled in more than $81m from donors within its first 24 hours, with Biden’s running mate-turned-preferred nominee standing to inherit the president’s massive campaign war chest.

Biden, sounding hoarse while recovering from Covid, thanked his team and urged their support for Harris.

“I know how hard you’ve worked, how many sacrifices you’ve made, and so many of you … uprooted your lives for me and the kind of commitments few people make for anything these days, but you made it,” he said. “And I’ve been honored and humbled. I mean, this is from the bottom of my heart … for all you’ve done for me and my family.”

Harris, who made her entry into the campaign headquarters to Beyonce’s “Freedom”, acknowledged the “rollercoaster” of an election cycle that marked the end of Biden’s chances of a second term while propelling her to the top of the Democratic ticket

“And we’re all filled with so many mixed emotions about this,” she said. “I love Joe Biden, and I know we all do, and we have so many darn good reasons for loving Joe Biden, and I have full faith that this team will be the reason we win in November.”

With a little over 100 days left before election day, Harris intends to “make the case to the American people – and we are going to win,” she said.

She pointed to Biden’s legacy in office over the first three and a half years of his administration – noting his response to the Covid crisis and his advocacy for democracy at home and abroad – but acknowledged “there is still more work to do”.

“In this election, we know we each face a question, what kind of country do we want to live in – a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear and hate,” Harris said.

“We each have the ability to answer that question,” she added. “We have work to do. We have doors to knock on, we have people to talk to, we have phone calls to make, and we have an election to win.”