The US president is ending his 2024 bid after a disastrous debate that raised doubts about his ability to hold office again. He did not immediately endorse Kamala Harris, which has left Democrats in limbo just months before the election.
After weeks of pressure, US President Joe Biden has announced that he is withdrawing from the presidential race.
In a letter published on X on Sunday, Mr. Biden said that this decision “is in the interest” of his “party and country“.
Joe Biden did not immediately endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, throwing Democrats into chaos months before the election against Donald Trump. He thanked Kamala Harris, adding that she was a “extraordinary partner“.
Calls for Biden, 81, to step down grew after a televised debate with Donald Trump on June 27, in which the president appeared physically and cognitively exhausted.
He tried to refute his opponent’s often false claims, but gave rambling answers with occasional blank stares.
After the on-air debacle, the Democratic camp informed the media that Joe Biden was suffering from a cold. The American president then gave a more energetic speech at a campaign rally.
But in subsequent interviews and public appearances, which were designed to reassure voters and his own party of his fitness to run, Biden often appeared fatigued.
A particularly disastrous moment occurred at a summit in Washington marking NATO’s 75th anniversary. While Joe Biden proved capable of holding a lengthy press conference in which he spoke on a range of complex policy areas, he also called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “President Putin“and his own vice president, Kamala Harris”Vice President Trump“.
Some of the party’s most senior figures, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have stopped short of calling for the president to resign, but have begun to give more equivocal answers to the media about what comes next.
George Clooney, one of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, weighed in, writing in the New York Times that “The only battle (Biden) can’t win is the fight against time“.
“It’s devastating to say this, but the Joe Biden I saw three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all saw at the debate.“.
On the brink
Even the attempted assassination of Donald Trump did not stop Democrats’ demands for Biden to step down.
Around the time of the Republican convention, where Donald Trump was officially nominated, the press announced that Joe Biden had tested positive for COVID-19, forcing him to travel home to Delaware to recover.
Shortly after the news, Black Entertainment Television aired a pre-recorded interview in which the president appeared surprisingly unwell and struggled to remember the name of his Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, instead calling him “black“.
After the Republican convention, Democrats appeared to be moving forward with their plan to have Joe Biden confirmed before the party’s September rally in Chicago, forcing delegates to vote for him as early as possible.
But before that plan could be implemented, Joe Biden announced he was withdrawing his candidacy.
What about now?
It has not yet been announced exactly what will happen at the Democratic convention or how Joe Biden’s successor will be chosen.
The most obvious path would be for the party to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris, which would make her the first female president of the United States. She has made numerous public appearances in recent months, and her poll numbers have improved relative to Biden and Trump.
Other prominent Democrats have also been floated as potential candidates, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
But after weeks of pressuring Biden to drop out, it’s still unclear whether anyone in the party will challenge Harris, risking further internal conflict.
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