Biden Expected To Give Keynote Speech On First Night Of DNC: Report

President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the 2024 race earlier this month amid concerns about his mental and physical health, is expected to be a keynote speaker on the first night of the Democratic National Convention, which kicks off in Chicago on August 19.

Sources told CNN on Tuesday that Biden is slated to deliver the primetime speech on the DNC’s opening night, where Vice President Kamala Harris is set to be officially crowned as the Democrats’ presidential nominee. If Biden, 81, goes through with a keynote address, the speech will be given to an audience that will likely include many Democrats who urged the president to end his campaign following his disastrous June 27 debate against former President Donald Trump.

The DNC will last four days, and the party’s nominee customarily speaks on the last day. Along with President Biden, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are expected to address the convention, but the exact schedule is undecided, CNN reported. The vice presidential nominee usually speaks on Wednesday before the presidential nominee takes the stage on Thursday. Harris has yet to name a running mate, but her campaign said that she would announce her decision by next Tuesday when she will hold the first rally with her vice presidential candidate in Philadelphia, The New York Times reported.

The 2024 Democratic National Convention will be unprecedented as the candidate chosen by the voters in the party’s primary will not be named the nominee. Instead, party elites and delegates have rallied behind Harris, who secured enough delegates to become the nominee just two days after Biden dropped out of the race, according to an Associated Press survey that asked delegates if they would vote for Harris at the convention.

Harris has hit the campaign trail running with a stop in Milwaukee last week and a rally that featured rapper Megan Thee Stallion in Atlanta on Tuesday night. During her rallies, the vice president has laid into Trump, calling him a “predator” and arguing that her time as a prosecutor has set her up to face off with Trump, pointing to Trump’s fraud convictions and being held liable for sexual assault.

Trump has pegged Harris as a radical leftist and a “failed vice president,” arguing that she is responsible for the massive influx of illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. under the Biden administration. Harris has pushed Trump to agree to debate her on September 10, the same day that Trump was slated to debate Biden for a second time.

Trump said earlier this week that he would “probably” debate the vice president but added that he can also “make a case for not doing it.” The former president said that if he debates Harris, he wants the showdown moved from ABC to Fox News.