Joe Biden on Sunday dropped out of the US presidential election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s new nominee, in a stunning move that upends the 2024 race for the White House.
The 81-year-old Biden stepped aside after weeks of pressure from Democrats following a disastrous debate performance, throwing the election battle against Republican Donald Trump into unprecedented turmoil.
“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 focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a letter on X while recovering from Covid at his beach house in Delaware.
Biden said he would “speak to the nation later this week in more detail about my decision.”
He later added that he was backing Harris — who is the first female, Black and South Asian vice president in US history, and will now be aiming to become its first female commander-in-chief.
“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” Biden said on X. “Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best… pic.twitter.com/x8DnvuImJV
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
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US Vice President Kamala Harris praised President Joe Biden’s “patriotic” decision and vowed to win the Democratic nomination and defeat Donald Trump.
“With this selfless and patriotic act, President Biden is doing what he has done throughout his life of service: putting the American people and our country above everything else,” she said in a statement.
“I am honored to have the president’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination…. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump.”
Biden is the first president in US history to pull out so late in an election race, and the first to bow out because of concerns over his mental acuity and health.
Trump quickly reacted, saying Biden had not been “fit to run” or “fit to serve” as president.
Biden spent more than three weeks resisting calls to step down following the shock of the June 27 debate, at one point insisting that only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to back out.
In a bid to show he was up to the job, he gave a number of interviews and what was billed as a “big boy” press conference in which he took numerous questions, but made further gaffes including calling Harris “Vice President Trump.”
Trump’s campaign team lashed into Vice President Kamala Harris after Joe Biden endorsed her to take his place atop the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket, saying she would be “even worse” than the outgoing leader.
Immediately after Biden’s announcement was made, congressional Republicans started to openly call for his immediate resignation from the White House.
Barack Obama praised Biden’s decision to drop out of the White House race, saying it was testament to the US leader’s “love of country” — but warned of “uncharted waters” ahead of the November 5 election.
“We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead. But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges,” he continued.
The former president has not formally endorsed Kamala Harris. This is significant given that not only is he America’s first Black president having the opportunity to endorse potentially the first Black female president, should she be elected, but also Joe Biden was the vice president for Barack Obama for eight years.
Former president Bill Clinton and ex-secretary of state Hillary Clinton praised Joe Biden’s decision to abandon his White House reelection bid, and threw their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris to take up the baton.
Lauding Biden’s “extraordinary career of service,” the Clintons said in a joint statement that they were “honored” to join him in endorsing Harris as the Democratic nominee “and will do whatever we can to support her.”
“Nothing has made us more worried for our country than the threat posed by a second Trump term. He has promised to be a dictator on day one,” they continued.
Chaotic Period for US
The end finally came shortly after Biden had been diagnosed with Covid, forcing him off the campaign trail and into isolation in Rehoboth Beach.
Biden’s decision to pull out also caps a tense and chaotic period in the US election, with Trump having survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally on July 13.
Biden joins a small club of US presidents who have decided to throw in the towel after just one term, with the last being Lyndon Johnson in 1968 — a year also marked by political turmoil and violence.
Johnson’s replacement as nominee, then-vice president Hubert Humphrey, went on to lose heavily to Richard Nixon.
But Democrats are counting on Harris to fare better, and hoping that she can prevent convicted felon Trump from making a sensational comeback to the Oval Office.
In recent weeks, the Biden campaign has reportedly been quietly carrying out a head-to-head survey of voters measuring how she matched up against Trump.
While Harris struggled to make an impact in her first years in the White House, she has emerged in the last year as a strong performer on the campaign trail on key messages such as abortion rights.
The former prosecutor has also made much of her life story as the first woman in US history to hold the vice presidency, as well as the first person of Black and South Asian origin.
Barring opposition from her party, Harris is now set to be nominated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19 in what promises to be a dramatic moment — and a heartrending one for Biden.
With AFP
