US President Joe Biden on Sunday announced he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party's nominee, bowing to weeks of mounting pressure from members of his own party to withdraw from his re-election bid against former President Donald Trump.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve your president,” Biden wrote in a post on the social networking site X.
“While it was my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and my country for me to step aside and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote.
“I will speak to the nation later this week in more detail about my decision,” Biden wrote, whose surprise decision came after a sharp rise in recent days in the number of congressional Democrats publicly calling for him to step aside in favor of another candidate.
Biden later tweeted that his “first decision as the party’s nominee in 2020 was to select Kamala Harris as my vice president.”
“This was the best decision I have ever made,” Biden wrote. “Today, I want to express my full support for Kamala to be our party’s nominee this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and defeat Trump.”
“Let's do this.”
“I am honored to receive the President’s endorsement, and I intend to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said in a statement.
“We are honored to join the President in endorsing Vice President Harris and will do everything we can to support her,” former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a joint statement from the Democratic power couple.
Biden, who has been isolating at his beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware, after being diagnosed with COVID-19, and Harris spoke Sunday before announcing his withdrawal from the race.
NBC News reported that Biden told his campaign team at 1:45 p.m. ET on Sunday that he had changed his mind about staying in the race.
On Sunday evening, during a call with campaign staff, Biden campaign co-chair Jen O'Malley Dillon urged staff to rally behind their new nominee and said their jobs would safely transition to Harris' campaign, three sources familiar with the call told NBC News.
She also acknowledged the emotional weight of this moment: “It’s normal to be sad, it’s normal to feel uncertain, but it’s also normal to be optimistic about our path forward.”
“He shouldn't have been there in the first place,” Trump said in a phone interview with NBC News of Biden's decision.
“He should have stayed in his basement,” said Trump, who was formally nominated as the Republican Party's nominee last week, days after narrowly avoiding being killed in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.
“In the coming days, the party will commit to a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a unified Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said in a statement.
“This process will be subject to established party rules and procedures,” Harrison said. “Our delegates are prepared to take seriously their responsibility to quickly present a candidate to the American people.”
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris campaigns at Westover High School in Fayetteville, North Carolina, U.S., July 18, 2024.
Kevin Mohatt | Reuters
Biden's move echoes the decision by another Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson, to withdraw from the 1968 election when he faced turmoil over the Vietnam War, low approval ratings and a surprisingly strong showing by Sen. Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire primary.
Biden's campaign has insisted for weeks that he will stay in the race, despite growing concern since his disastrous debate with Trump in late June that he is too old and frail to compete against the former president and serve a full second term if reelected.
By Sunday, nearly 40 Democratic members of Congress had urged Biden to drop out. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who recently switched his political affiliation from Democrat to independent, said publicly earlier Sunday that Biden should drop out of the race.
U.S. President Joe Biden attends a NATO event to mark the 75th anniversary of the alliance, in Washington, U.S., July 9, 2024.
Eve Herman | Reuters
“President Joe Biden is an American patriot who has always put our country first,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who previously served as House speaker, tweeted Sunday.
“His legacy of vision, values, and leadership makes him one of the most important presidents in American history,” Pelosi wrote. “With love and gratitude to President Biden for always believing in the promise of America and giving people the opportunity to reach their goals. May God bless America with the greatness and goodness of Joe Biden.”
Biden's decision to withdraw from the presidential race opens the door to a run less than four months before Election Day.
This also poses unusual questions and challenges for the Democratic Party, which must now struggle to assemble a new presidential ticket.
The next candidate will need to compete against the Republican ticket led by Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance, and win over donors, delegates and other loyal allies of the incumbent — all while convincing voters of the candidate’s worthiness for the nation’s highest office.
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Biden began to lose support from his party and allies after his June 27 debate against Trump.
Although he is only three years older than Trump, Biden looked much worse on the debate stage, displaying a stiff posture and a blank stare at times, and often giving rough, unclear and ineffective answers.
In substance and appearance, Biden was a sharp contrast to Trump, who looked and sounded the same as he has in recent years.
The debate immediately sparked a crisis among Democrats, and even before it was over, party activists were raising doubts about whether Biden could mount an effective campaign against Trump.
Prominent Democratic donors and supporters have publicly urged Biden to withdraw, with some pledging to withhold campaign contributions in the meantime.
Biden and his aides spent weeks trying to stop the bleeding.
In his first interview after the debate, Biden said he was convinced he was the best person to take on Trump, adding that he could only be persuaded to step down “if the Lord Almighty came out and told me so.”
But with his tough stance failing to calm unrest within his party, Biden has suggested he might pull back in other ways.
In an interview with BET that aired Wednesday during the Republican National Convention, Biden said he might reconsider his decision to stay in the race “if I have a medical condition.”
On the same day the interview was scheduled to air, Biden tested positive for the coronavirus, canceling a scheduled appearance in Las Vegas and returning to his beach home in Delaware.
Biden is already the oldest person ever to serve in the White House.
He was due to turn 86 at the end of his second term. He has managed to overcome questions about his physical and mental fitness even during his 2020 election campaign.
These concerns have grown in the 2024 cycle, but have been forcefully overcome by the Biden campaign and White House aides, and the relative lack of press conferences and interviews by the president may have obscured scrutiny of his acumen.
