US President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign on Sunday by endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as fellow Democrats lost confidence in Biden’s intelligence and ability to defeat President Donald Trump.
In two posts on X, Biden said he will continue to serve as president and commander in chief until the end of his term in January 2025, and is due to address the nation this week.
“My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus my efforts on the duties of my presidency for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in the post. “Today, I want to fully endorse and support Kamala as this year’s party’s nominee.”
In another letter, he wrote: “Serving as your President has been the greatest honor of my life. While I intended to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and our country for me to step down and focus solely on fulfilling the duties of my presidency for the remainder of my term.”
Harris, 59, would be the first Black woman in U.S. history to run as a top candidate for a major party. Many party officials have viewed her as a possible nominee, but it is unclear whether other Democratic officials will challenge her or whether the party itself will seek a nominee.
President Joe Biden threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris after wrapping up his reelection campaign on Sunday. Political science professor Chris Galdieri reacts to Biden’s endorsement of Harris, while Republican strategist Chip Voelkel weighs in on how Harris fare against President Trump.
“Criminal Joe Biden is not and never has been fit to run for president or hold office,” Trump said on his social media site Truth Social.
In a phone interview with CNN, Trump called Biden “the worst president our country has ever had,” adding that Harris is “easier to beat than Biden.”
Biden’s announcement comes after he faced growing public and private pressure from Democratic lawmakers and party officials to drop out of the race following his surprisingly poor performance in last month’s televised debate with Republican rival Donald Trump.
Biden’s occasional inability to complete clear sentences diverted public attention from Trump’s performance, in which he made a series of false statements, and focused instead on questions about whether Biden is fit to serve another four years in office.
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Days later, he voiced new concerns in an interview, ignoring Democrats’ concerns and his widening lead in the polls and saying he wouldn’t mind losing to Trump if he knew he “gave it all he’d given.”
Ms Harris’ gaffe at the NATO summit – invoking Russian President Vladimir Putin when she meant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and calling her “Vice President Trump” – stoked further fears.
At the end of his speech at a NATO press conference, US President Joe Biden introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but mistakenly referred to him as “President Putin.” Biden quickly corrected himself, telling Zelensky, “I’m focused on defeating Putin. You’re much better at it.”
Just 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, and more than 1 in 10 Democrats had publicly called on him to drop out of the race.
Biden’s historic move marks the first time a sitting president has abandoned his party’s nomination in pursuit of reelection since President Lyndon Johnson in March 1968, leaving his successor with less than four months to campaign.
Democratic Revolt
If Harris is selected as the nominee, it will be an unprecedented gamble for Democrats: She will become the first Black and Asian American woman to run for the White House in a country that has only elected one Black president and never a woman in more than two centuries of democracy.
Biden defeated Trump in 2020 to become the oldest elected US president in history. During the election campaign, Biden positioned himself as a bridge to the next generation of Democratic Party leaders. Some interpreted this as Biden being a transitional figure who would serve one term, defeat Trump, and return the Democrats to power.
But with doubts about her experience and popularity lingering, Harris set her sights on a second term, believing she was the only Democrat who could beat Trump again. But in recent days, her age has become more evident, with her gait becoming more awkward and her childhood stutter occasionally reappearing.
The Trump campaign had hoped that a strong performance in the June 27 debate would ease concerns about his age. But it turned out the opposite: A Reuters/Ipsos poll after the debate showed that about 40% of Democrats thought Trump should drop out of the race.
Donors began to revolt, Ms. Harris’ supporters began rallying around her, and Democratic leaders, including longtime ally Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, told Mr. Biden he couldn’t win the election.
Biden initially resisted pressure to quit, holding damage-control conference calls and meetings with lawmakers and governors and giving rare television interviews. But it wasn’t enough. Polls showed Trump’s lead widening in key battleground states, and Democrats began to fear they would suffer crushing losses in the House and Senate. On July 17, Rep. Adam Schiff of California called on Biden to drop out of the race.
Biden’s resignation drew a sharp new contrast between Harris, a former prosecutor and presumed Democratic nominee, and Trump, who is 78 and 20 years older than Harris, and faces two outstanding criminal indictments for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump was convicted of trying to conceal hush money payments to porn actresses and is due to be sentenced in New York in September.
Biden’s struggles began before the debate
Earlier this year, Biden faced little opposition and comfortably won the Democratic presidential primary despite concerns about voter age.
But his staunch support for Israel’s military operation in Gaza has eroded support from some in his own party, particularly young progressive Democrats and voters of color.
Many black voters say Biden hasn’t done enough for them, and enthusiasm for a second term for Biden was generally low among Democrats. Even before the debate with Trump, Biden was lagging Republicans in some national polls and in battleground states he needed to win to win the Nov. 5 election.
Harris has been tasked with reaching out to those voters in recent months.
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During the primary campaign, Biden secured more than 3,600 delegates for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, nearly double the 1,976 needed to win the party’s nomination.
Unless Democrats change the rules, delegates who have pledged to support Biden will attend the convention as “independents” and vote to choose his successor.
Democrats also have a system of “superdelegates” – party officials and elected leaders who have limited support on the first ballot but can play a decisive role in subsequent votes.
Biden defeated Trump in 2020 by winning key battleground states, including close races in Pennsylvania and Georgia. Nationally, Biden won 51.3% of the popular vote to Trump’s 46.8%, beating Trump by more than 7 million votes.