A smiling Biden addressed a cheering crowd shortly before 9 p.m., thanking voters for supporting his campaign when the media and political experts had declared his effort “dead.”
“We’ve just won and we’ve won big because of you,” Biden said, grinning. “And we are very much alive.”
Biden emphasized his ability to defeat Mr. Trump and said that he represented a return to consistency.
“This is the moment to choose the path forward for our democracy,” Biden said. “If the Democrats nominate me, I believe I can beat Donald Trump, keep Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives as speaker, and take back the United States Senate.”
Biden also took a shot at Bloomberg, who was previously a Republican, and Sanders, an independent, saying that he is a “candidate who’s a Democrat, a lifelong Democrat, a proud Democrat, an Obama-Biden Democrat.”
“Talk about the revolution isn’t changing anyone’s life. We need real changes right now,” Biden said.
The former vice president acknowledged the role that South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn’s endorsement had on this primary, declaring Clyburn “brought me back!”
He also spoke of the deep emotional ties he has with the state. Biden’s experience here soon after the 2015 mass shooting in Charleston, which took place around the time of his son Beau’s death from brain cancer, both helped him heal, he said, and inspired him to run for the presidency. He recalled that he and his wife, Jill Biden, came for Sunday services at Mother Emanuel AME after the funeral for the victims. Six weeks earlier, he said, “we had lost our son, Beau. And we needed to be healed, too.”
“We needed whatever they were exuding. And with every season that’s passed, they’ve gotten up and found purpose to live life worthy of the ones they lost. Worthy of the blessings to live in this remarkable country,” Biden said. “We left here, having arrived in overwhelming pain, thinking, ‘We can do this. We can get through this.’ So, I wanted to tell you, it’s no small reason why I’m in this race. People like all of you here tonight, all around the country. The days of Donald Trump’s divisiveness will soon be over.”
America, he said, “can’t survive unless we focus on our goodness.”
This is the first primary Biden has ever won, after running for president in 1988, 2008 and now in 2020.
“We can say without fear of contradiction: the Bidens love you, man,” Biden said at the end of his speech.
