WASHINGTON (AP) – Following a terrible debate with Donald Trump that cast doubt on the incumbent’s suitability for office, President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential contest on Sunday. Less than four months before the election, the unexpected news was made, upending a campaign that both major parties considered to be the most important in recent memory.
With the intention of finishing his time in office, the president promptly backed Vice President Kamala Harris to challenge Trump and urged his party to rally behind her. As a result, she became the party’s immediate favourite to win the nomination at its August convention in Chicago.
A week after Trump was the target of an attempted murder at a rally in Pennsylvania, the news is the most recent shock to the turbulent presidential campaign.
Never before has a party’s presumed presidential candidate dropped out of the race thus close to the outcome. After just one state’s primary, President Lyndon Johnson, overwhelmed by the Vietnam War, declared in March 1968 that he would not run for office again. Following more than 14 million Democratic votes cast in favour of him during the primary, Biden made his choice in July.
In a statement, Harris declared her intention to “earn and win” her party’s candidature while applauding Biden for his “selfless and patriotic act.”
“I will exert every effort to bring the Democratic Party and our country together in opposition to Donald Trump and his divisive Project 2025 agenda,” she said.
Biden’s decision to withdraw came in response to mounting pressure from his Democratic supporters to do so after the June 27 debate, during which the 81-year-old president faltered, often answered incoherently, and neglected to address the many lies made by the former president.
“Serving as your President has been the greatest honour of my life. And while I have always intended to run for reelection, I feel that it would be better for my party and the nation if I stepped aside and concentrated only on carrying out my presidential responsibilities for the balance of my term, Biden said in a letter that was uploaded to his X account on Sunday.
After announcing that he was ending his candidature, Biden backed Harris over thirty minutes later.
In another post on X, he said, “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.” “Democrats, let’s band together to defeat Trump.”
In the next days, Harris will have a daunting political to-do list: choosing a running partner, getting the support of party delegates, and turning around a major political operation designed to reelect Biden in order to support her candidature. Harris would be the first woman and person of South Asian heritage to hold the office of president if she were elected.
Before Harris made any comments about Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race, she received the support of the Congressional Black Caucus, former President Bill Clinton, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. These signals suggested that the party was beginning to come together behind Harris. Notably, however, is that former president Barack Obama waited and supported the party’s final choice.
The Clintons released a statement saying, “We are honoured to join the President in endorsing Vice President Harris and will do whatever we can to support her.”
Though he applauded Biden for his decision to withdraw from the campaign, Obama refrained from publicly backing Harris in light of his own private reservations about Biden’s prospects of winning reelection.
He said in a statement, “I have extraordinary confidence that our party’s leaders will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.”
Following his COVID-19 diagnosis last week, Biden has been withdrawing to his Delaware beach home and haggling over his political future with a dwindling group of close friends and family members. This decision was made during this period. Later this week, Biden promised to address the country and provide “detail” on his choice.
According to persons familiar with the situation who provided comments on the private conversations on condition of anonymity, Harris learned of Biden’s intentions on Sunday morning and top campaign and White House aides were informed only minutes before the letter was sent out. For the previous several days, Biden had been considering his future, and he had made a well considered choice.
Democrats now have a very narrow window of time to persuade voters that their candidate is capable of handling the job and defeating Trump, and they must work quickly to provide consistency to the nomination process in a few of weeks. And after spending years honing in on Biden, Trump has to turn his attention to a new rival.
Biden’s 52 years in electoral politics came to an abrupt and abrupt conclusion with this choice, as politicians, funders, and even close advisors communicated to him their reservations about his ability to persuade voters that he could legitimately serve another four years in office.
With all but one of the nominating contests won by Biden, he easily gained the majority of delegates, making his nomination a formality. Those delegates may now freely support another candidate since he has withdrawn.
The fact that Harris,59, is the only contender who has direct access to the Biden campaign’s war fund because to federal campaign finance regulations made her seem like the obvious choice to succeed Biden.
In an indication of her advantage in the contest for the Democratic nomination, Biden’s campaign officially renamed itself as Harris for President, reflecting the fact that she is taking over his political organisation. In order to reflect Harris’ candidature, Democratic organizations—including the Democratic National Committee—also submitted documents renaming their joint fundraising committees.
The Democratic National Convention is set to take place in Chicago from August 19–22, however before to the in-person events, the party has declared that it will officially nominate Biden by a virtual roll call.
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It was unclear whether other contenders would put up a fight with Harris for the nomination. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who competed against Biden and Harris for the Democratic candidature in 2020, and California Governor Gavin Newsom, who had been mentioned as a potential Biden successor last year, backed her on Sunday.
Jaime Harrison, the head of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement that the party would choose “a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November” by “undertaking a transparent and orderly process.”
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who defected from the Democratic Party earlier this year to run as an independent, may re-register as a Democrat to challenge the vice president, according to Manchin’s longtime advisor Jonathan Kott.
As she attempts to secure the nomination, Harris was phoning Democratic delegates and elected officials on Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday, Harris was awarded her first delegates in the Democratic presidential primary. Following Biden’s withdrawal from the race, the Tennessee Democratic Party announced on X that its delegation decided to support Harris during a meeting on Sunday.
Governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona—all of whom are from swing states and have been floated as potential running mates for Harris—also backed Harris on Sunday night.
In response, Trump said on his Truth Social page that Biden “was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve” in response to the news.
“His presidency will cause us great suffering, but we will quickly undo the harm he has caused,” he said. “RESTORE AMERICA’S GROWTH!”
Even though Trump and his staff had made it apparent that they preferred to go on Biden, as pressure mounted on Biden to resign, Trump’s campaign upped its assaults on Harris.
Prominent Democratic figures, many of whom spearheaded the campaign to remove Biden from the race, swiftly issued remarks endorsing Biden’s choice.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said, “His decision was not easy, of course, but he once again put his country, his party, and our future first.” “Today demonstrates that you are a great American and a true patriot, Joe.”
Biden was hailed as “one of the most accomplished and consequential leaders in American history” by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
Speaker of the Republican-controlled House Mike Johnson said that Biden need to step down right now if he is unfit to serve as president. Johnson remarked in a statement that “November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.”
According to a source familiar with the president’s itinerary who was not authorised to publicly speak, Biden still plans to welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House this week in addition to his scheduled speech to the nation.
Given that Biden is still recuperating from COVID, the precise time of the meeting is still up in the air. In addition to meeting with Harris while in Washington, Netanyahu is set to address Congress on Wednesday.
In 2020, Biden presented himself as a figure of transition who aimed to serve as a link to a new generation of leaders. But he was hesitant to give up the position he had worked so hard for decades to get.
Someone asked Biden once whether he thought any other Democrats could defeat Trump.
“It’s probably fifty of them,” Biden said. “No, there are others who can defeat him as well, but I will prevail over him.”
As the nation’s oldest president, Biden has previously said that he was ready for another term and another campaign, saying Americans all they needed to do was “watch me.”
And they did observe him. His dismal debate performance set off a chain reaction of fear among Democrats and funders, who openly said what some had been saying in secret for months: they did not believe he was qualified to serve as president for another four years.
Since declaring his candidature for reelection, Biden has been plagued by age concerns, despite the fact that Trump is just three years younger at 78. In August 2023, The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research conducted a survey that found that most Americans believed the president was too elderly to serve a second term. Though it is certainly a vulnerability for Trump, the majority also question his mental fitness to serve as president.
Biden often said that while he wasn’t as youthful as he once was and didn’t move or talk as naturally, his knowledge and decades of experience were still very valuable.
In my capacity as a Biden, I swear. At a rally in North Carolina the day after the debate, he said to supporters, “I would not be running again if I did not believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job.” “Because the stakes are simply too high.”
Voters, however, had other issues with him as well. Despite leading the country through its recovery from a pandemic, overseeing a thriving economy, and passing significant bipartisan legislation that will have long-term effects, he has been incredibly unpopular as a leader. Most Americans don’t think well of the way he’s doing his job, and he consistently has poor approval ratings on important topics like immigration and the economy.
Biden’s decision to run for office was heavily influenced by Trump. After serving as Obama’s vice president for eight years and losing his son Beau to death, he had retired from public life. However, Trump’s remarks at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017—as white nationalists flocked to the city to protest the removal of Confederate memorials—prompted him to run for office.
“You had some very bad people in the group, but on both sides, there were also very fine people,” said Trump. on both sides.
First lady Jill Biden, husband of Joe Biden, reshared his letter of announcement after the president’s speech, embellishing it with red love emojis.
On social media, granddaughter Naomi Biden Neal said, “I’m nothing but proud of my Pop.” “Our world is better today in so many ways thanks to him,” she said, adding that he has served the nation “with every bit of his soul and with unmatched distinction.”
