Democrat Eric Swalwell says it’s time for Joe Biden to ‘pass the torch’

California congressman Eric Swalwell drew on a speech that Joe Biden gave at convention in his home state 32 years ago to prod the elderly politician to drop out of the 2020 presidential race.

Swalwell told Biden, 76, that it’s time for him to ‘pass the torch’ of leadership to a younger generation. 

Highlighting the age gap between the youngest and oldest candidates standing on the debate stage, Swalwell said he was six when Biden gave the speech at the California convention. 

‘He is still right today. If we are going to solve the issue, pass the torch. If we are going to solve climate chaos, pass the cover. If we want to end gun violence and solve student debt, pass the torch,’ he said.

California congressman Eric Swalwell drew on a speech that Joe Biden gave at convention in his home state 32 years ago to prod the elderly politician to drop out of the presidential race

Biden smiled as Swalwell dropped the grenade in the first moments of the debate, grinning as he did it.  

‘I’m still holding on to that torch,’ he said.

Biden didn’t linger on the attack. He turned to question at hand, the candidates’ ideological differences.

‘I want to make it clear. The fact is we have to make sure that everybody is prepared better to go on for an education,’ he said. ‘The fact is that’s why I proposed and was focusing on schools in distress. I think we should triple the amount of money we spent for title one schools.’

Biden said, ‘We should have universal pre-k and think every single person who graduates from high school, 65 out of 100 need something beyond high school and should provide for them to be able to get that education. That’s why there should be free community college, cutting in half the cost of college. 

‘We should be in a position where we do not have anyone pay back a student debt when they get out, they are making less than $25,000 a year. Their debt is frozen and no interest until they get beyond that. We can’t put people in a position where they aren’t able to move on.’

Swalwell appeared to be referring to Biden’s February 1987 speech at the California State Democratic Convention. He spoke about the tumultuous time period in America that comprised his youth and the quarter century anniversary of JFK’s assassination.

‘It sounds corny, but remember how you used to feel? Remember how you felt when you heard, let the word go forth from this time and place, that the torch has been passed, passed to a new generation of Americans?’ said Biden.

Biden would announce his first presidential run months later, in June of 1987. It ended abruptly that September after he admitted to plagiarizing parts of speeches and papers. 

Biden was appropriately citing JFK’s inaugural address when he referred to the passing of the torch to a younger generation.

The late president said the day he took office: ‘We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. 

‘Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of these human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world,’ said Kennedy.

Other candidates didn’t pile onto Swalwell’s argument, but South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who’s 37, has also invoked Biden’s age as part of the argument for his own candidacy.