REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware: U.S. President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign on Sunday after fellow Democrats lost faith in his mental acuity and ability to beat Donald Trump, while endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the party’s candidate.
Biden, 81, in a post on X, said he will remain in his role as president and commander-in-chief until his term ends in January 2025 and will address the nation this week.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote.
His initial statement had not included an endorsement of Harris, but he followed up a few minutes later with an expression of support.
Harris, 59, will become the first Black woman to run at the top of a major-party ticket in the country’s history.
Former President Trump, the Republican candidate in the Nov. 5 election, told CNN on Sunday that he believed Harris would be easier to defeat.
Biden had a change of heart, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The president told allies that as of Saturday night he planned to stay in the race before changing his mind on Sunday afternoon. “Last night the message was ‘proceed with everything, full speed ahead’,” a source familiar with the matter told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. “At around 1:45 p.m. today: the president told his senior team that he had changed his mind.”
He announced his decision on social media within minutes.
It was unclear whether other senior Democrats would challenge Harris for the party’s nomination – she was widely seen as the pick for many party officials – or whether the party itself would choose to open the field for nominations.
Biden’s announcement follows a wave of public and private pressure from Democratic lawmakers and party officials to quit the race after his shockingly poor performance in a June 27 televised debate last month against Republican rival Trump, 78.
Biden’s failure at times to complete clear sentences took the public spotlight away from Trump’s performance, in which he made a string of false statements, and trained it instead on questions surrounding Biden’s fitness for another 4-year term.
Days later he raised fresh concerns in an interview, shrugging off Democrats’ worries and a widening gap in opinion polls, and saying he would be fine losing to Trump if he knew he’d “gave it my all.”
His gaffes at a NATO summit – invoking Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name when he meant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and calling Harris “Vice President Trump” -further stoked anxieties.
Only four days before Sunday’s announcement, Biden was diagnosed with COVID-19 for a third time, forcing him to cut short a campaign trip to Las Vegas. More than one in 10 congressional Democrats had called publicly for him to quit the race.
Biden’s historic move – the first sitting president to give up his party’s nomination for reelection since President Lyndon Johnson in March 1968 – leaves his replacement with less than four months to wage a campaign.
If Harris emerges as the nominee, the move would represent an unprecedented gamble by the Democratic Party: its first Black and Asian American woman to run for the White House in a country that has elected one Black president and never a woman president in more than two centuries of democracy.
Biden was the oldest U.S. president ever elected when he beat Trump in 2020. During that campaign, Biden described himself as a bridge to the next generation of Democratic leaders. Some interpreted that to mean he would serve one term, a transitional figure who beat Trump and brought his party back to power.
But he set his sights on a second term in the belief that he was the only Democrat who could beat Trump again amid questions about Harris’s experience and popularity. In recent times, though, his advanced age began to show through more. His gait became stilted and his childhood stutter occasionally returned.
His team had hoped a strong performance at the 27th June debate would ease concerns over his age. It did the opposite: a Reuters/Ipsos poll after the debate showed that about 40% of Democrats thought he should quit the race.
Donors began to revolt and supporters of Harris began to coalesce around her. Top Democrats, including former House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime ally, told Biden he cannot win the election.
Biden initially resisted pressure to step aside. He held damage-control calls and meetings with lawmakers and state governors, and sat for rare television interviews. But it was not enough. Polls showed Trump’s lead in key battleground states widening, and Democrats began to fear a wipeout in the House and Senate. On 17th July, California’s Rep. Adam Schiff called on him to exit the race.
Biden’s departure sets up a stark new contrast, between the Democrats’ presumptive new nominee, Harris, a former prosecutor, and Trump who is two decades her senior and faces two outstanding criminal prosecutions related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election result. He is due to be sentenced in New York in September on a conviction for trying to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star.
Struggling before debate: Earlier this year, facing little opposition, Biden easily won the Democratic Party’s primary race to pick its presidential candidate, despite voter concerns about his age.
However, his staunch support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza eroded support among some in his own party, particularly young, progressive Democrats and voters of color.
Many black voters say Biden has not done enough for them, and enthusiasm among Democrats overall for a second Biden term had been low. Even before the debate with Trump, Biden was trailing the Republican in some national polls and in the battleground states he would have needed to win to prevail on 5th Nov.
Harris was tasked with reaching out to those voters in recent months.
During the primary race, Biden accumulated more than 3,600 delegates to the Democratic National Convention to be held in Chicago in August. That was almost double the 1,976 needed to win the party’s nomination.
Unless the Democratic Party changes the rules, delegates pledged to Biden would enter the convention “uncommitted,” leaving them to vote on his successor.
Democrats also have a system of “superdelegates,” unpledged senior party officials and elected leaders whose support is limited on the first ballot but who could play a decisive role in subsequent rounds.
Biden beat Trump in 2020 by winning in the key battleground states, including tight races in Pennsylvania and Georgia. At a national level, he bested Trump by more than 7 million votes, capturing 51.3% of the popular vote to Trump’s 46.8%.
US reactions to President Biden’s decision:
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
In a phone call with CNN minutes after Biden announced his exit from the 2024 race, former President Trump responded, “He is the worst president in the history of our country. He goes down as the single worst president by far in the history of our country.” Trump also said he thought Vice President Kamala Harris will be easier to defeat than Biden would have been, according to CNN.
CHUCK SCHUMER, SENATE MAJORITY LEADER
“Joe Biden has not only been a great president and a great legislative leader but he is a truly amazing human being. His decision of course was not easy, but he once again put his country, his party, and our future first. Joe, today shows you are a true patriot and great American,” the Democrat said in a statement.
ELISE STEFANIK, HOUSE REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE CHAIRWOMAN
“If Joe Biden can’t run for re-election, he is unable and unfit to serve as President of the United States. He must immediately resign,” Stefanik said in a statement.
GAVIN NEWSOM, GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA
“President Biden has been an extraordinary, history-making president — a leader who has fought hard for working people and delivered astonishing results for all Americans. He will go down in history as one of the most impactful and selfless presidents,” Newsom posted on X.
DONALD TRUMP JR
“Kamala Harris owns the entire leftwing policy record of Joe Biden. The only difference is that she is even more liberal and less competent than Joe, which is really saying something. She was put in charge of the border and we saw the worst invasion of illegals in our history!!!” Donald Jr said on X.
ERICH PICA, PRESIDENT OF FRIENDS OF THE EARTH ACTION
“We thank President Biden for his decades of leadership and support the decision to end his re-election campaign. While far from perfect, Biden has taken some historic steps to address the climate crisis by passing the Inflation Reduction Act and kickstarting major investments in renewable energy.
“What’s at stake in this election remains the same: Trump is an existential threat to our democracy and the planet and would guarantee a full descent into climate chaos,” Pica said in a statement.
GRETCHEN WHITMER, GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN
“President Biden is a great public servant who knows better than anyone what it takes to defeat Donald Trump. His remarkable work to lower prescription drug costs, fix the damn roads, bring supply chains home, address climate change, and ensure America’s global leadership over decades will go down in history. My job in this election will remain the same: doing everything I can to elect Democrats and stop Donald Trump, a convicted felon whose agenda of raising families’ costs, banning abortion nationwide, and abusing the power of the White House to settle his own scores is completely wrong for Michigan,” Whitmer said on X.
DICK DURBIN, SENATOR AND MAJORITY WHIP
“Throughout his public career, Joe Biden always put country first. His four years as President made it clear that he was determined to put our country back on track and restore the soul of our nation. America will be forever grateful for all he has given to this country,” Durbin posted on X.
ALLAN LICHTMAN, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY HISTORY PROFESSOR
“The Democrats could still salvage the contest key if they unite behind Harris!” Lichtman posted on X.
JAY TIMMONS, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS PRESIDENT AND CEO
“We have seen significant manufacturing job growth in recent years, and there are now more manufacturing jobs in America than at any point since 2008. We will continue working with President Biden until he passes the torch to the next commander in chief,” Timmons said in a statement.
STEVE SCALISE, HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER
“Democrat party bosses just proved that they have absolutely no respect for their own voters. After lecturing others about democracy, they just forced Joe Biden off the ticket — trashing the primary choice of 14 million of their own voters,” Scalise, a Republican, said on X.
NAOMI BIDEN, JOE BIDEN’S GRANDDAUGHTER
“I’m nothing but proud today of my Pop, our President, Joe Biden, who has served our country with every bit of his soul and with unmatched distinction. Not only has he been — and will continue to be — the most effective president of our lifetime, but he has likely already cemented himself as the most effective and impactful public servant in our nation’s history,” Biden posted on X.
VOTERS OF TOMORROW
The Gen Z-led organization that says it engages young Americans in politics and government, praised Biden “for delivering the most pro-youth agenda in American history.”
“We are ready to mobilize young people to elect Kamala Harris as president,” the group said. ‑‑Reuters
