President Joe Biden's late-night time slot to address party members attending the Democratic National Convention on Monday did not sit well with his aides.
Biden, 81, who last month was pushed by Democrat leaders to end his reelection campaign, began speaking near 11:30 p.m. ET and ended his 48-minute speech well after midnight.
"This is awful. He literally set up a campaign and handed it over to them — do they have to cut him out of prime time?" one longtime Biden aide texted Axios' Alex Thompson.
DNC officials released a statement regarding the lateness of Biden's speech.
"Because of the raucous applause interrupting speaker after speaker, we ultimately skipped elements of our program to ensure we could get to President Biden as quickly as possible so that he could speak directly to the American people," DNC officials said in a statement, Politico reported.
"We are proud of the electric atmosphere in our convention hall and proud that our convention is showcasing the broad and diverse coalition behind the Harris-Walz ticket throughout the week on and off the stage."
Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., a former DNC chair, and Grace Meng, D-N.Y., were cut from speaking the first night of the convention due to the length of the event. Singer James Taylor also got bumped.
Despite reports to the contrary, Biden insisted he did not harbor any ill will about the impending end of his tenure, and called on the party to unite around Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats' presidential nominee.
"I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you," Biden said.
Unlike Biden, 2016 Democrat presidential nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday spoke to the nation in prime time.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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