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After President Joe Biden delivered his historic address to the nation on Wednesday, formally announcing he would bow out of the campaign for a second term and pass the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, the panel of CNN commentators watching were in awe, with Van Jones in particular overcome with emotion.

"This was incredibly hard for him to do, this would be hard for anyone to do," said former Biden administration communications official Kate Bedingfield. "It feels almost unnatural for someone to have achieved the thing that they have been working toward their entire life and then say, the best thing is for me to step aside. Even knowing how hard that was for him, I think hearing those important themes come through, I think he was shining a light for the country moving forward over the next three and a half months through a really perilous election."