President Joe Biden giving a speech at Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (Screenshot from Royal Missionary Baptist Church livestream)
CHARLESTON, S.C. — President Joe Biden spent the final day of his tenure in the state that catapulted him into the office: South Carolina.
The day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Biden delivered a speech at the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston. He is set to speak later Sunday at the International African American Museum in downtown Charleston.
He also briefly spoke to reporters about the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that resulted in the release Sunday of three hostages.
Addressing one of South Carolina’s largest Black churches, Biden again thanked South Carolina voters for putting him on the path to be the 46th president.
“I could not be standing here, I would not be standing here and that’s not hyperbole, at this pulpit were it not for Jim Clyburn,” Biden told the congregation.
It was Clyburn’s endorsement in 2020 that reinvigorated his campaign. After a poor start in his third attempt at the office, a victory in the South Carolina primary culminated in his victory over then-President Donald Trump, Biden’s predecessor and successor.
When he stepped off Air Force One on Sunday, Biden hugged Clyburn, South Carolina’s only Democrat in Congress, whom Biden’s referred to as his best friend.
Biden easily won South Carolina‘s Democratic presidential primary in February, the party’s first recognized primary of the campaign, against two extreme long-shot candidates. But it ultimately didn’t matter, as he dropped out in July following a disastrous debate performance against Trump.
Cease-fire
Biden spoke on the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas that went into effect Sunday, declaring “the guns in Gaza have gone silent.” Biden told reporters that two American hostages will be released as part of the first phase of the deal.
The agreement reached last week ended more than 15 months of warfare between Israel and Hamas.
The decades-long conflict was reignited on Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 civilians and taking some 250 hostages.
“I’ve worked in foreign policy for decades and this is one of the toughest negotiations I’ve been a part of,” Biden said.
Biden said the second phase of the agreement will include the release of Israeli soldiers and “the permanent end to the war without Hamas in power or able to threaten Israel.”
The first three hostages released from Gaza arrived in Israel on Sunday.
Church
There’s one word that resonates with Biden when he steps into a Black church, he said Sunday: Hope.
“Not a joke,” he said to the congregation at Royal Missionary, a church he visited in February of 2020 during his presidential run.
It’s among several Black churches in South Carolina Biden’s spoken at over the years.
Following the 2015 Mother Emmanuel massacre of nine people following a Wednesday night prayer service, then-Vice President Biden spoke at the funeral for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the church’s pastor and state senator. Last month, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 inmates on federal death row. The Mother Emanuel shooter was not one of them.
Biden’s first campaign stop a year ago was at Mother Emanuel.
In North Charleston on Sunday, Biden quoted scripture and touched on his own personal tragedies as he delivered a message of persistence, community and hope, as well as honored Martin Luther King Jr.
“Your friends bear witness, they see your pain, they pick you up, they help you get to Sunday, from pain to purpose,” said Biden, who added that multiple friends in South Carolina aided him through personal tragedies.
Biden called King one of his political heroes Sunday after a service that included a video dedicated to the civil rights activist and preacher.
He also called the Black church “the spiritual home of the Black experience.” Biden said.
“That’s a truth we honor,” he said.
At multiple points in his speech, applause erupted through the crowd and a booming “thank you” was heard at one point.
The president said his father called abuse of power the greatest sin. The essence of the Bible, he said, is that all people are created equally and deserve to be treated equally.
“We never fully lived up to that commitment, but never fully walked away from it either because of you and your ancestors before us,” Biden said.
Biden said that “we pledge allegiance not just to an idea but to each other.”
“That’s how I viewed my decision to issue more individual pardons than any pardons than any president in American history. … To show mercy to those who served a significant amount of time,” he said.
Biden closed his message by again thanking the people of South Carolina, saying being their president “was the greatest honor of my life.”
And to a resounding applause, the 46th president said, “I’m not going anywhere.”
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com.
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