President Biden vowed to remain active in public life after leaving the White House, telling a South Carolina church congregation on Sunday, “I’m not going anywhere.”
On his last full day in office, he traveled to Charleston, S.C., and spoke at the Royal Missionary Baptist Church to celebrate an early Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
On the topic of clemency, Biden commended himself for issuing more commutations and individual pardons than “any other president in American history,” adding that he also aspired to “end the federal death penalty” by commuting most sentences to life in prison without parole, though his commutations drew horrified reactions and criticism.
Biden also said he commuted the sentences of inmates who were allegedly “serving disproportionately hard, long, and harsh sentences for nonviolent drug offenses” and showed “mercy” for individuals who did their time or served a significant amount of time and “have shown significant remorse and rehabilitation.”
“These decisions are difficult. Some have never been done before, but, in my experience, with my conscience, I believe taking together justice and mercy requires as a nation to bear witness, to see people’s pain, not to look away and do the work, to move pain to purpose, to show we can get a person, a nation, to a day of redemption,” Biden said, as reported by Fox News. “We know the struggle to redeem the soul of this nation is difficult and ongoing.”
“This is the shore between peril and possibility. But faith, faith teaches us the America of our dreams is always closer than we think. That’s the faith we must hold on to for the Saturdays to come. We must hold on a hope. We must stay engaged. Must always keep the faith in a better day to come,” Biden said.
He then added bizarrely: “I’m not going anywhere. I’m not kidding… The people in South Carolina, thank you for keeping the faith. It’s been the honor of my life to serve as your president.”
WATCH:
Joe Biden Refuses To Leave?
Astounding and confusing statement by President Joe Biden today, on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as our 47th President:
“I’m not going anywhere! … I’m not kidding!”
What did he mean by this? pic.twitter.com/Ex3ZEVm5sA
— Conservative Brief (@ConservBrief) January 19, 2025
Biden then appeared to address persistent claims of his mental decline, confirmed now by several media outlets and sources.
“As I close out this journey with you, I’m just as passionate about our work as I was as a 29-year-old kid when I got elected,” Biden added. “I’m in no ways tired.”
Biden was protected by those closest to him who knew he was faltering as president, according to a report published late last week.
Citing sources, The New York Times reported that Biden’s aides saw that he was not the same as he was a few years before and that they worked to protect him as best they could.
“The people closest to President Biden were well aware that he had changed. He talked more slowly than he had just a few years before, needed to hoist himself out of his seat in the presidential limousine and walked with a halting gait,” the report began.
His longtime aide, Mike Donilon, reportedly told the president in 2022 that his “biggest issue is the perception of age.”
Biden, however, ignored that advice and announced his reelection bid the following year.
The Times reported that aides “recognized his physical frailty to a greater degree than they have publicly acknowledged. Then they cooperated, according to interviews with more than two dozen aides, allies, lawmakers and donors, to manage his decline.
“They rearranged meetings to make sure Mr. Biden was in a better mood — a strategy one person close to him described as how aides should handle any president. At times, they delayed sharing information with him, including negative polling data, as they debated the best way to frame it. They surrounded him with aides when he walked from the White House to the waiting presidential helicopter on the South Lawn so that news cameras could not capture his awkward bearing,” the report said.
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