New Delhi: US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race today – Sunday, July 21 – breaking the news to his own party and the United States via a tweet on X. The decision comes just months before the November election, where he was set to face off against his rival, former President Donald Trump.
Citing the best interests of the Democratic Party and the “country,” Biden stated his intention to focus solely on fulfilling his duties as president for the remainder of his term. He thanked Vice President Kamala Harris for her support, and in a subsequent message on X (formerly Twitter), endorsed her as the Demoratic nominee for president:
My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. 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.
“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,” Biden wrote in a letter posted on his X account.
The speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, a Republican, was quick to urge Biden to resign as president right away. “If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President,” he said in a lengthy tweet, “he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.”
In a statement, Kamala Harris said she was honoured to have Biden’s endorsement and intended to “earn and win this nomination”:
“I am honoured to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination. 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.”
Biden is expected to address the nation later this week to provide further insight into his decision.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
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Reactions from Democrats are still coming in but former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton were quick to endorse Kamala Harris:
We are honoured to join the President in endorsing Vice President Harris and will do whatever we can to support her.
We’ve lived through many ups and downs, but nothing has made us more worried for our country than the threat posed by a second Trump term. He has promised to be a dictator on day one, and the recent ruling by his servile Supreme Court will only embolden him to further shred the Constitution. Now is the time to support Kamala Harris and fight with everything we’ve got to elect her. America’s future depends on it.”
However, former president Barack Obama, who issued a statement on Biden’s decision, not only refrained from backing Harris but said he would like to see the Democratic nominee emerge from a “process”:
“We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead. But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.”
The focus on ‘process’ is of course important since a withdrawal of this sort has never happened before. Among Democrats and also Republicans, however, there has been some talk of Obama’s wife, Michele Obama, as a ‘dark horse’ candidate to take on Trump.
