President Joe Biden stunned American politics on Sunday when he announced his withdrawal from the presidential race and waited 23 minutes before he threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris to become his replacement nominee.
Support for Harris to become the heir apparent presidential nominee grew as quickly as calls had for Biden to step aside, and her new backers included those who had strongly defended Biden's ability to stay in the race. And while she wasn't instantly a presumptive nominee, Harris in very short order became the frontrunner.
The president’s initial announcement, made on X, amounted to a reversal of defiance against a growing chorus of donors, lawmakers and other Democratic officials who said they didn’t believe Biden had the cognitive or physical stamina to defeat Donald Trump and serve four more years in the White House.
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“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 said in the statement.
The next statement came 23 minutes later when he endorsed Harris to take his place atop the Democratic presidential ticket.
“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,” Biden posted on X. “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.”
The pregnant pause between the president’s initial announcement that he was standing down and his second statement in which he explicitly endorsed Harris was not intentional, a source familiar with Biden’s thinking said. Rather it was another blunder in a series of mishaps, starting with his disastrous presidential debate performance, that led to his ouster from the race.
When White House aides and other Biden insiders noted that the president’s statement made no mention of his support for Vice President Harris, the president then issued his second statement endorsing Harris.
“With this selfless and patriotic act, President Biden is doing what he has done throughout his life of service: putting the American people and our country above everything else,” Harris said in her own statement released Sunday afternoon.
“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” she said, noting that there are just 107 days until Election Day.
Harris almost immediately got a full endorsement from former president Bill Clinton and a series of other major Democratic figures. But notably they did not include former president Barack Obama—who released a statement making no mention of Harris—or former speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had been a key figure in orchestrating Biden’s exit. She had said she favored an open nomination process.
Donald Trump seized on the Democratic chaos set off by Biden’s move to call him “the worst president ever.” But other Republicans demanded that Biden step aside immediately and also hinted they will try to stop a new Democratic candidate from getting on the ballot, claiming that Biden’s move is undemocratic.
The president’s allies and aides defended him and promoted his candidacy to the very end.
One of them, Ron Klain, Biden’s former chief of staff and longtime political adviser, told The Daily Beast on Sunday that he regretted the president’s decision because he believed “he was our best candidate in 2024.”
“Having made his choice, it’s time for the political fanfiction writing among Democratic elites to stop and unite behind the only other national election winner we have in our party: our outstanding vice president, Kamala Harris,” Klain said in a text message.
It was as if Klain was speaking directly to powerful donors, who had frozen millions of dollars critically needed by the Biden-Harris campaign and then threatened to withhold funds from House and Senate races as Democrats are hoping to retake the House and hold onto the Senate.
While elite donors have privately voiced concerns about Harris becoming the nominee, they may have little choice if the Democratic Party hopes to avoid a tumultuous scene at its nominating convention next month. By endorsing Harris, Biden is essentially asking his pledged delegates to now back Harris.
Klain, who sat next to Harris in the West Wing and watched her on the job, including in the Situation Room and Oval Office, gave as ringing an endorsement of her as the president did.
“She will be a strong candidate and a great president,” he said.
With the full force of the White House behind her, Harris was on a trajectory Sunday to become the official Democratic nominee for president pending completion of election and campaign finance paperwork to officially end Biden's candidacy for president and declare hers.
The big outstanding question, of course, became: Who will Kamala Harris choose as her vice presidential running mate? Several candidates on her new short list were mentioned over the past few weeks as potential replacements for Biden to head into the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19.
Among them are Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.
Kelly, a former astronaut and combat veteran who has twice won as a Democrat in a red border state, is a name that began generating more buzz as the walls began closing in on Biden and it appeared inevitable he would be forced to abandon his campaign. (Kelly's current Senate term doesn't end until January 2029 and the state's governor, Katie Hobbs, is a Democrat who could appoint a party loyalist to fill Kelly's seat.)
Black Democrats and progressive women’s political leaders have been rushing to shore up Harris's bid, expecting that the president would eventually cave to the pressure campaign.
“We need to fight this election on the two ‘Ds’: Dobbs and democracy. And there is simply no better person to communicate that than Vice President Harris,” Shaunna Thomas, founder and CEO of UlraViolet, a leading progressive women’s group, told The Daily Beast.
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the powerful congressman who endorsed Biden in 2020 and was widely perceived to be the tipping point for Biden’s victory, supported Biden’s 2024 candidacy until Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris.
On Sunday, he once again threw his support behind Harris. “I echo the good judgment [Biden] demonstrated in selecting Vice President Harris to lead this nation alongside him, and I am proud to follow his lead in support of her candidacy to succeed him as the Democratic Party’s 2024 nominee for President,” Clyburn wrote in a statement.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had been leading the charge behind the scenes for congressional Democrats who wanted Biden out of the race, said Sunday that Biden is a “patriotic American who has always put out country first.”
