Biden urges Americans to ‘keep the faith’ in final full day as president in South Carolina

Jan 20

By Darlene Superville and Rebecca Santana

*President Joe Biden speaks during a church service at Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, S.C., Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)*

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Joe Biden spent his final full day as president Sunday in South Carolina, urging Americans to “keep the faith in a better day to come” and reflecting on the influence of both the civil rights movement and the state itself in his political trajectory.

On the eve of Monday’s inauguration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, Biden delivered a final farewell from a state that holds special meaning after his win in its 2020 Democratic primary set him up to achieve his life’s goal of winning election as president.

Biden spoke to the congregation of Royal Missionary Baptist Church about why he entered public service — Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were political heroes, he said. And in a nod to South Carolina Democrats, he said: “I owe you big.”

The day before the federal holiday honoring King, the slain civil rights leader, Biden struck a more hopeful tone for the future of the country than his televised farewell address last Wednesday, when he warned about an “oligarchy” of the ultra wealthy taking root and a “tech-industrial complex” impeding the future of democracy.

“We know the struggle to redeeming the soul of this nation is difficult and ongoing,” Biden said Sunday. “We must hold on to hope. We must stay engaged. We must always keep the faith in a better day to come.”

He added: “I’m not going anywhere” — and the congregation applauded.

President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., attends a church service at Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, S.C., Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Biden later toured the International African American Museum in Charleston which was built on a waterfront site where tens of thousands of enslaved Africans were brought to the U.S. from the late 1760s through 1808.

He spoke about efforts to ensure an administration “that looks like America,” pointing to people like Lloyd Austin, who was Biden’s secretary of defense and the first Black person in the job. Speaking of his nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, he leaned toward the microphone and said: “And by the way, she’s smarter than those guys.”

“We’re proving that by remembering our history, we can make history,” Biden said.

Biden was introduced at both stops by Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., a key ally who called the president his “longtime friend.” Clyburn cited a number of presidents who were underappreciated in office but were later looked on more fondly. He added Biden to that list.

“So I want to say to you, good friend, very little appreciation has been shown recently but faint not. History will be very kind to you,” Clyburn said.

Watch the full speech below.

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