'Always keep the faith,' Biden tells South Carolina congregation

In some of the final public remarks of President Joe Biden's time in office, he reflected on his decades-long career and urged Americans to "always keep the faith."

It was a full-circle moment for him as he spoke to a congregation at the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in South Carolina, a state that he credits for paving his way to the White House in 2020.

Biden delivered the remarks to a congregation he spoke to when he started his presidential campaign. He finished his remarks by saying: "I owe you big, as they say where I come from. You're the guys that brought me to the dance."

He also reflected on how the civil rights movement prompted him to get involved in politics in the first place.

"And thank you for the congregation of Rural Missionary Baptist Church and welcoming me back to Charleston to worship with you," he said. "I prayed with you here in February of 2020 when I was running for president, and my final full day as president of all the places I wanted to be, was back here with you."

And during the speech, Biden spoke to how some Americans feel hopeless. The lifelong devout Catholic talked about how Jesus died on a Friday and was resurrected on a Sunday, but he said that many people don't talk about the Saturday in between.

"When his disciples felt all hope was lost, our lives and the lives of the nation, we have those Saturdays. We bear -- to bear witness of the day before glory in some people's pain are in pain and they can't look away. But what the work we do on Saturday is going to determine whether we move on with pain or purpose. How can faith get a person, get a nation, through what's to come?" Biden said.

"But we know the struggle to redeem the soul of this nation is difficult and ongoing. The distance is short between peril and possibility. But faith, faith teaches us the America of our dreams is always closer than we think. That's the faith we must hold on to for the Saturdays to come," Biden said.

While at the church, Biden talked about some of his heroes, including Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. The president also talked about his historic number of pardons and clemency actions.

"We know how healing and restoration from harm is a pathway to the kind of communities we want to live in, where there's fairness, justice, accountability in the system where the people we love go through hard times, fall down, make mistakes, but we're right there to help them get back up," he said. "We don't turn on each other. We lean into each other. That's the sacred covenant of our nation," Biden said.

"That's how I viewed my decision to issue more of individual pardons and commutations than any president in American history, to inspire an end to the federal death penalty by commuting most of those sentences to life in prison without parole. To commute the sentences of individuals serving disproportionately hard, long and harsh sentences for nonviolent drug offenses compared to the sentence they would have received today," Biden added.

He also looked back on the efforts to "redeem the soul of the nation," harkening back to his campaign slogan during the full-circle remarks.

"We must hold on to hope. We must stay engaged. Must always keep the faith in a better day to come. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not kidding," Biden said.

"It's been the honor of my life to serve as your president," he said. "The highest honor for Jill and our family, as I close out this journey with you, I'm just as passionate about our work as I was as a 29-year-old kid when I got elected."