Virgilio Lorenzo Jr

On last full day as president, Biden urges Americans to 'keep the faith'

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<p>Joe Biden traveled to South Carolina on Sunday, his last full day as US president, where he urged Americans to &quot;keep the faith in a better day to come&quot; as he marked the national holiday honoring civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.</p><p>A scant day before turning the White House over to Donald Trump, Biden attended services at Royal Missionary Baptist Church, a historically Black church in North Charleston.</p><p>Promising that he is &quot;not going anywhere,&quot; Biden told the congregants that America &quot;must stay engaged, we must always keep the faith in a better day to come.&quot;</p><p>He also spoke about the continued fight to make King&#x27;s dream of a color-blind nation &quot;a reality.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/1/20/trump-promises-brand-new-day-at-pre-inauguration-victory-rally-0838">Trump promises &#x27;brand new day&#x27; at pre-inauguration victory rally</a></div><p>Racial progress has never moved in a smooth arc in the United States, and some have described the election of Trump -- who in 2015 insisted that Barack Obama was not an American -- as a step backward.</p><p>But Biden told the congregants that &quot;every time I spend time in a Black church I think of one thing: the word &#x27;hope.&#x27;&quot;</p><p>Monday is a US national holiday honoring King, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who advocated for non-violent resistance in the fight for equal rights for Black Americans. He was assassinated in 1968.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDED&#x27; </strong></div><div><br/></div><p>South Carolina was pivotal in Biden&#x27;s path to securing the Democratic Party&#x27;s presidential nomination in 2020 -- which paved the way for his defeat that year of then-incumbent Donald Trump -- and Biden on Sunday thanked South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn for his key endorsement that year.</p><p>&quot;I would not be standing -- that&#x27;s not hyperbole -- here at this pulpit were it not for Jim Clyburn,&quot; the president said.</p><p>Clyburn, who is Black, later choked up when returning the favor.</p><p>&quot;Joe Biden has been what this country needed,&quot; he said. &quot;People don&#x27;t always appreciate it.&quot;</p><p>Biden won a mostly favorable but slightly mixed reception during his South Carolina visit on Sunday.</p><p>While crowds waved at his passing motorcade and people held signs saying &quot;Thank You Joe,&quot; one small group chanted &quot;Biden is a war criminal,&quot; blaming him for the high death toll in the fighting in Gaza.</p><p>He also spoke briefly about the landmark ceasefire agreement for Gaza that took force earlier Sunday, saying, &quot;The road to this deal has not been easy at all.&quot;</p><p>In brief remarks Sunday about the Mideast, Biden told reporters that the incipient Gaza ceasefire offered hope, but that its continuing success &quot;will depend on the next administration.&quot;</p><p>He added that Israel&#x27;s crushing attacks on militants in southern Lebanon meant that that country now faced &quot;an opportunity for a future free from the grip of Hezbollah.&quot;</p><p>Charleston is home to the historic Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where a white shooter killed nine Black worshippers in 2015.</p><p>While Biden, just before Christmas, commuted the death penalties of 37 people in federal prisons, he made two exceptions: those of Djokhar Tsarnaev, involved in the 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon, and Dylann Roof, the man behind the Emanuel AME shooting.</p><p>Early Sunday, the White House announced that, in one of his final official acts, Biden had pardoned Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican-born writer and orator seen by some as a prophet who advocated for a return to Africa.</p><p>Garvey had been convicted of mail fraud and sentenced to prison, but the sentence was commuted in 1927 by President Calvin Coolidge. Biden&#x27;s pardon expunges Garvey&#x27;s conviction from the record.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/1/20/pope-francis-says-trump-s-immigration-raids-would-be-a-disgrace-0844">Pope Francis says Trump&#x27;s immigration raids would be a &#x27;disgrace&#x27;</a></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>Joe Biden traveled to South Carolina on Sunday, his last full day as US president, where he urged Americans to "keep the faith in a better day to come" as he marked the national holiday honoring civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.</p>

Joe Biden traveled to South Carolina on Sunday, his last full day as US president, where he urged Americans to "keep the faith in a better day to come" as he marked the national holiday honoring civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.