‘I owe you big:’ Biden gives message of hope, thanks at S.C. church
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - On President Joe Biden’s final full day as president, he delivered a message of encouragement and gratitude Sunday at a North Charleston church.
Biden returned to Royal Missionary Baptist Church, the church he visited in 2020 during that year’s presidential campaign.
“I prayed with you here in February of 2020 when I was running for president,” he said. “My final full day as president, of all the places I wanted to be, was back here with you.”
He ended his message promising, “I’m not going anywhere. I’m not kidding,” and telling South Carolina, considered a key state in his race to the Democratic nomination in 2020, “I owe you big.”
“You’re the guys that brought me to the dance,” he said. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
He reflected on his own involvement in the Civil Rights movement on the eve of Monday’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday. He said King and Bobby Kennedy were his two political heroes growing up. He also spoke about the importance of his own faith.
“On Sundays, we often reflect on resurrection and redemption. We Jesus was buried on Friday and he rose on Sunday. We don’t talk enough about Saturday, but his disciples felt all hope was lost. In our lives and the lives of the nation we have those Saturdays we bear, to bear witness of the day before glory,” he said. “But the work we do on Saturday is going to determine whether we move up with pain or purpose.”
He told the congregation that every time he spends time in a Black church, he thinks of one thing: the word “hope.”
“We know the soul of this nation is difficult and ongoing,” he said. “But faith teaches us the America of our dreams is always closer than we think. That is the faith we must hold onto for the Saturdays to come. We must hold the hope. We must stay engaged. We must always keep the faith in a better day to come.”
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He called being president the honor of his life but said he is just as ionate about the work still to be done as he was as a 29-year-old first elected to office.
“I’m in no way tired,” he said, saying no one told him the road would be easy. “I don’t think the good Lord brought us this far to leave us behind.”
Biden was introduced by Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., a key ally who referred to the president as his “longtime friend.”
Clyburn cited a number of presidents who were underappreciated during their time in office but are now looked on more fondly with the age of time. He added Biden to that list.
“So I want to say to you, good friend, very little appreciation has been shown recently but feint not. History will be very proud of you,” Clyburn said.
Air Force One landed at t Base Charleston shortly after 10 a.m. From there, the presidential motorcade traveled to Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston.
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, their son, Hunter, and his wife, Melissa, are also attending the service.
The Bidens were seated with U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who represents South Carolina’s Sixth Congressional District in Congress.
Before his scheduled remarks at the church, he said, “the guns in Gaza have gone silent” under an Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement he had outlined in May and he noted that the three hostages released Sunday “appear to be in good health.” He also offered some advice on maintaining the hard-won deal to Trump.
“Success is going to require persistence, and continuing for our friends in the region and the belief in diplomacy backed by deterrence,” Biden said.
Arriving at the t Base Charleston Sunday morning, Clyburn said he was not surprised that Biden wanted to spend part of his final full day in office, since South Carolina played a big role in Biden securing the Democratic nomination for president.
Clyburn praised Biden’s accomplishments during that single term in the White House.
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“On substance, there’s no president since Lyndon Johnson that’s produced what Joe Biden has,” Clyburn said. “Stylistically, he doesn’t fir the time within which we live. He’s not the soundite guy. He is much more the substance guy.”
The White House did not release specific times for the president’s visit, but former state Sen. Marlin Kimpson, whom Biden appointed in 2023 to serve on the U.S. Trade Advisory Committee, released some details about the plan earlier this week.
After the church service, Biden took a private tour of the International African American Museum in downtown Charleston.
From there, Biden returned to the nation’s capital.
In addition to MLK Day, Sunday is the day before Inauguration Day, on which Donald Trump will become the 47th president.
It’s a rare year in which both events fall on the same day. Inauguration Day is always Jan. 20. MLK Day falls on the third Monday of January. Both events coincide on the same day this year.
Biden visited Mother Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston in what was then a campaign stop on Jan. 8, 2024. He spoke about the massacre of nine parishioners at the church nearly a decade ago on June 17, 2015.
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