President Joe Biden announced Sunday he was ending his re-election campaign, officially dropping out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president,” Biden wrote in a statement. “And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, 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 the duties as president for the remainder of my term.”
Biden, 81, did not mention Harris in his first statement released Sunday afternoon after he faced weeks of pressure from party mates to bow out. About 23 minutes after announcing his departure, he clarified Harris had his backing.
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“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,” Biden wrote. “And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats—it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
Donald Trump appeared to be thrilled with the news, despite many polls suggesting he’d overtaken Biden in key battleground states in the weeks after his debate against the president.
Trump wasted no time blasting out a campaign email that asserted Biden had “quit the race in complete disgrace.” In a call with CNN, he reportedly claimed that Harris would be easier to defeat than Biden. He also reacted on Truth Social, where he made no mention of the vice president.
“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve - And never was!” Trump posted. “He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement. All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President.”
Calls for Biden to step down trickled in the days after he had a disaster of a debate performance in June, where he spoke incoherently at times he opposed Trump. By mid-July, however, some of the Democratic Party’s biggest names were calling for the president to call it quits—especially after he had significant flubs at other public events, which included him introducing Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” at a news conference. Later that same day, he referred to Harris as “Vice President Trump.”
Biden said he would speak later this week about his momentous decision.
The decision throws the Democratic Party into chaos, with 106 days until Election Day on Nov. 5. A number of names have been rumored to lead the top the Democrats’ presidential ticket, with Harris often regarded as the overwhelming favorite.
Biden’s departure this late in a presidential race, well after he swept each primary, is unprecedented. It remains unclear how Democrats will address the gaping hole at the top of their presidential ticket, but the DNC is scheduled to begin on Aug. 19 in Chicago.
Reports late last week hinted that Biden could bow out of the race as early as the weekend, which was a sharp change in tone compared to weeks prior.
Previously, in media appearances and through his intermediaries, the president insisted he’d remain the party’s nominee in November, barring an intervention from the “Lord Almighty” or a medical condition.
After Biden suspended his campaign, some top Republicans called on him to resign outright from the job—something Biden has given no indication he plans to do. That included a concise statement from House Speaker Mike Johnson on the matter.
“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for president, he is not fit to serve as president,” he wrote.
