Washington, Jan 19: Joe Biden is spending his final full day in office Sunday in South Carolina, a state that holds special meaning after a commanding win in the 2020 Democratic primary there set him up to achieve his life’s goal of being elected president of the United States.
On the eve of Monday’s inauguration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, Biden planned to deliver a final farewell from the state that brought him to the dance, as he likes to say.
Biden, accompanied by his wife, first lady Jill Biden, was scheduled to visit Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston to worship and speak on the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the White House said. Monday is the federal holiday honouring the slain civil rights leader.
Afterward, the Bidens will tour the International African American Museum. It was built on a waterfront site where tens of thousands of enslaved Africans were brought to the US from the late 1760s through 1808, according to the museum’s website.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-SC, a key Biden ally, said the trip was Biden’s way of saying “thank you” to the state.
“Joe Biden is showing once again who he is by coming back to the state that really launched him to the presidency,” Clyburn told The Associated Press in an interview.
The president delivered a televised farewell address to the nation on Wednesday.
Back in 2020, Biden saw his campaign flounder after he lost the opening contests in New Hampshire, Iowa and Nevada. But at the fourth stop, South Carolina – where Black voters make up a majority of the Democratic electorate – he was lifted to victory after Clyburn’s endorsement. (AP)
