WASHINGTON, DC: US President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he would withdraw his bid for re-election amid growing opposition within the Democratic Party and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the party's nominee to run against Republican Donald Trump.
Biden, 81, said in a post on X that he would remain president and commander in chief until his term ends in January 2025 and that he would address the nation this week.
“Serving as President has been the greatest honor of my life. While it was my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and my country for me to step aside and focus solely on my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote.
His initial statement did not include an endorsement of Harris, but minutes later he signaled his support.
Biden's campaign has been in limbo since his June 27 debate defeat against the 78-year-old former president, who at times struggled to form his thoughts.
Over the past week, as opposition has grown within Biden’s own party, 36 Democratic lawmakers — more than one in eight members of Congress — have publicly called on Biden to suspend his campaign.
Lawmakers said they fear Trump could lose not only the White House but also the chance to control both chambers of Congress in the Nov. 5 election, leaving Democrats without a meaningful grip on power.
It was a stark contrast to last week's rallying cry for Republicans around President Trump and his running mate, 39-year-old Senator J.D. Vance.
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Harris, 59, becomes the first black woman to run for a major political party's top office in U.S. history.
President Trump said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that he thought it would be easier to defeat Harris.
Biden changed his mind at the last minute, a source familiar with the matter said. The president told allies that as of Saturday night, he planned to stay in the race until he changed his mind Sunday afternoon.
“The message last night was to go ahead and move forward at full speed,” the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. “At about 1:45 p.m. today: The president told his senior team that he had changed his mind.”
Biden announced his decision via social media within minutes.
It was unclear whether other Democratic leaders would challenge Harris for the party's nomination, as she was widely seen as a popular choice among many party officials, or whether the party itself would open up the nomination race.
Republican lawmakers have argued that Biden should resign immediately, which would hand the White House over to Harris and leave House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, as the next speaker.
“If you can’t run for president, how can you govern now? We have five months left in this administration. It’s really concerning, it’s dangerous for the country,” Johnson told CNN on Sunday, before Biden’s announcement.
I gave it my all
Biden's announcement comes as Democratic lawmakers and party officials have pressured him publicly and privately to step back from the race following his shockingly poor debate performance.
Trump's false statements have diverted public attention away from his actions and toward questions about whether Biden can serve another four-year term.
Days later, he raised new concerns in an interview, dismissing Democrats' concerns and the widening gap in polls, and saying he would be OK with losing to Trump if he knew he had “given his all.”
His gaffes at the NATO summit, including referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by name as well as mentioning Russian President Vladimir Putin and calling Harris “Vice President Trump,” have only added to the unease.
Just four days before Sunday’s announcement, Biden was forced to cut short a campaign trip to Las Vegas after contracting COVID-19, prompting more than one in 10 Democrats to publicly call for him to drop out of the race.
Biden's historic move leaves his successor with less than four months to launch a campaign, as he is the first incumbent president to give up his party's nomination for reelection since Lyndon Johnson in March 1968 during the Vietnam War.
If Harris wins the nomination, it would be an unprecedented gamble for the Democratic Party: a black and Asian-American woman would be the first to run for the White House in a country that has had only one black president and no female president in the past 200 years.
Biden was the oldest president in history when he defeated Trump in 2020. During his campaign, Biden portrayed himself as a bridge to the next generation of Democratic leaders. Some interpreted him as a one-term candidate, a transitional figure who would defeat Trump and bring the party back to power.
But he turned his eyes to a second term, believing he was the only Democrat who could beat Trump again amid questions about Harris’s experience and popularity. But his age has become more apparent in recent days. His gait has become unsteady, and his childhood stutter has returned at times.
His team had hoped a strong performance in the June 27 debate would ease concerns about his age. But the opposite was true: A Reuters/Ipsos poll after the debate found that about 40 percent of Democrats thought he should drop out of the race.
Donors revolted and Harris’s supporters began to rally around her. Leading Democrats, including longtime ally former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, told Biden he could not win the election.
Biden initially resisted pressure to step aside. He made damage control calls and meetings with lawmakers and governors, and gave rare television interviews. But it wasn’t enough. Polls showed Trump’s lead in key battleground states widening, and Democrats began to fear a crushing defeat in the House and Senate. On July 17, California Rep. Adam Schiff urged him to step aside.
Biden’s resignation highlights a stark new contrast between Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and Trump, a former prosecutor who is 20 years older than her and faces two pending criminal charges related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. He is scheduled to be sentenced in New York in September after being convicted of trying to conceal hush money paid to a porn star.
Biden struggled before the debate
Earlier this year, despite little opposition, Biden easily won the Democratic presidential primary, even as voters expressed concerns about his age and health.
His staunch support for Israel's military campaign in Gaza has eroded some support within his own party, particularly among young, progressive Democrats and voters of color who make up a key part of the Democratic base.
Many black voters say Biden hasn’t done enough for them, and among Democrats overall, enthusiasm for a second term for Biden is low. Even before the debate with Trump, Biden was trailing the Republican in some national polls and was also behind in key states he needs to win on Nov. 5.
Harris has been tasked with reaching out to voters in recent months.
During the primaries, Biden garnered 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 committed to Biden will attend the convention “without commitment” and vote for his successor.
Democrats also have a system of “superdelegates,” high-ranking party officials and elected leaders who have limited support in the first round but can play a decisive role in subsequent rounds of voting.
Biden defeated Trump in 2020, winning key battleground states including the tight-knit Pennsylvania and Georgia. Nationwide, he won 51.3% of the popular vote, beating Trump by more than 7 million votes, to Trump’s 46.8%.
