President Biden vowed to stay round in public life following his departure from the White Home, telling a South Carolina church congregation on Sunday, “I am not going anyplace.”
On his final full day in workplace, Biden traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, the place he spoke on the Royal Missionary Baptist Church to rejoice Martin Luther King Day early.
On the subject of clemency, Biden counseled himself for issuing extra commutations and particular person pardons than “another president in American historical past,” including that he additionally aspired to “finish the federal dying penalty” by commuting most sentences to life in jail with out parole. The president additionally mentioned he commuted the sentences of people “serving disproportionately arduous, lengthy, and harsh sentences for nonviolent drug offenses” and confirmed “mercy” for people who did their time or served a big period of time and “have proven important regret and rehabilitation.”
BIDEN PARDONS LATE BLACK ACTIVIST MARCUS GARVEY, 4 OTHERS
President Biden speaks throughout a church service at Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Picture/Stephanie Scarbrough)
“These selections are tough. Some have by no means been accomplished earlier than, however, in my expertise, with my conscience, I imagine taking collectively justice and mercy requires as a nation to bear witness, to see folks’s ache, to not look away and do the work, to maneuver ache to objective, to indicate we will get an individual, a nation, to a day of redemption,” Biden mentioned. “We all know the battle to redeem the soul of this nation is tough and ongoing.”
“That is the shore between peril and chance. However religion, religion teaches us the America of our desires is at all times nearer than we predict. That is the religion we should maintain on to for the Saturdays to come back. We should maintain on a hope. We should keep engaged. Should at all times hold the religion in a greater day to come back,” Biden mentioned, including: “I am not going anyplace. I am not kidding… The folks in South Carolina, thanks for preserving the religion. It has been the dignity of my life to function your president.”
President Biden, first woman Jill Biden and Rep. James Clyburn attend a service at Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Picture/Stephanie Scarbrough)
“As I shut out this journey with you, I am simply as keen about our work as I used to be as a 29-year-old child once I bought elected,” Biden added. “I am in no methods drained.”
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Biden, who turned 82 in November, have to be again in Washington, D.C., on Monday for the inauguration ceremony of President-elect Trump.
After a disastrous debate efficiency towards Trump over the summer season, Biden suspended his re-election marketing campaign amid critical considerations throughout the Democratic Social gathering over his age and mental fitness.
“It has been the dignity of my life to function your president,” President Biden advised a congregation in North Charleston, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Picture/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Vice President Kamala Harris headed the Democratic ticket in Biden’s place and suffered a decisive defeat by Trump in November.
Biden was the oldest U.S. president sworn into workplace 4 years in the past. Trump, 78, will eclipse that file by just a few months on Monday.
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Earlier Sunday, Biden granted clemency to an extra 5 folks, together with pardoning political activist and Black nationalist Marcus Garvey.
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