‘History is in your hands. The power is in your hands,’ Biden said, urging Americans to keep the faith.
WASHINGTON—As his presidency comes to a close, Joe Biden penned a farewell letter to the American people, reflecting on his four years in office and his decades of public service.
“It has been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years,” Biden wrote, marking the end of a political journey that brought him from Scranton to the Oval Office.
“Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States,” Biden wrote. “I have given my heart and my soul to our nation. And I have been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people.”
Biden is also scheduled to deliver a farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office on Jan. 15 at 8 p.m. ET.
It’s a tradition for departing presidents to leave a letter for their successors in the Oval Office. However, Biden chose to pen a letter to the American people as well, following in Barack Obama’s footsteps. In his farewell letter eight years ago, Obama thanked Americans and famously wrote, “You made me a better President, and you made me a better man.”
Ahead of Biden’s farewell speech, the White House released a fact sheet outlining the Biden-Harris administration’s record, highlighting a long list of actions, starting with efforts to combat the pandemic.
“Four years ago, we stood in a winter of peril and a winter of possibilities,” Biden wrote in his letter.
“We were in the grip of the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War,” he said, referring to the January 6 Capitol breach.
“But we came together as Americans, and we braved through it. We emerged stronger, more prosperous, and more secure.”
By Emel Akan
