Democrat and current US President Joe Biden has ended his re-election campaign. He wrote on X, “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.
“I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision.”
Biden has endorsed Kamala Harris as the next leader of the Democrats.
Whether other senior Democrats will challenge Harris for the party’s nomination is unclear. Kamala is widely seen as the pick for many party officials, but whether the party itself would choose to open the field for nominations remains up in the air.
“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” she said in a statement.
“Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead.
“I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.
“We have 107 days until election day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.”
The Lead-Up to Biden’s Decision
Biden’s announcement follows pressure across the board, from Democratic lawmakers, party officials, and the general public to quit the race after his poor performance in a June 27 televised debate against Donald Trump, but also a series of gaffes that left Biden’s media reputation in a tailspin.
Biden used Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name when he meant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and called Harris “Vice President Trump” to name two gaffes, which further amped pressure for his withdrawal from the election race.
Concerns regarding Biden’s age were common. US Presidents age dramatically in office. The optics of being an 81-year-old President were already challenging to overcome. Americans voting for Biden to be the 2024 President must have considered his eventual 86-year-old seat in late 2028.
Interestingly, advanced age is not an issue for Malaysia’s politicians or voters, where Mahathir Mohamad broke a Guinness world record for the oldest serving prime minister at 92 years old. However, for Biden, as the American President, perhaps his age was an unjumpable hurdle.
Biden was diagnosed with COVID-19 for a third time four days ago, forcing him to cut short a campaign trip to Las Vegas. Continual hiccups like these saw more than one in ten congressional Democrats call publicly for him to quit the race.
Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a close Biden ally, told CNN on Thursday that Biden was “resting and reflecting” as he recovers from COVID-19. Once starkly keen to continue the race, Biden’s switch to now withdraw has been somewhat surprising.
At 1.45pm New Zealand time, Biden’s senior staff were notified of his withdrawal from the 2024 race. At 1.46pm, that message was made public.
Implications for the Democratic Party
In the wake of Biden’s step-down, several world leaders have paid tribute to his time in office and thanked him for his presidential service.
Biden’s replacement will have less than four months in the campaign hot seat. It’s the first time a sitting President has given up his party’s re-election nomination ticket since President Lyndon Johnson in March 1968.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump couldn’t be more different. Trump is two decades Harris’ senior and faces two criminal prosecutions related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election result. Harris is a former prosecutor.
Harris has already received universal support from Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg, among other Democratic voices.
The announcement adds another jolt to an already unpredictable election cycle for the United States. Seen as the most momentous election in generations, Biden’s withdrawal comes days after the attempted assassination of Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson anticipates that Republicans will challenge whether Democrats can legally replace Biden as the nominee.
“I think they have got legal hurdles in some of these states, and it’ll be litigated, I would expect, on the ground there and they will have to sort through that. They have got a real problem,” Johnson said on CNN’s State of the Union.
Kamala Harris’ placement as the Democratic candidate would be a history-making moment for the party, as the first woman, Black person, and person of South Asian descent as its presidential nominee.
High-ranking officials such as Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi prefer an open process, believing it would strengthen any Democratic nominee’s ability to confront Republican Donald Trump.
“Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump,” Biden said. “Let’s do this.”
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