WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he would end his presidential reelection campaign, bringing an abrupt and humiliating end to his half-century-long political career and ending the race for the White House just four months before Election Day.
Biden, 81, has failed to reverse a growing sentiment within his party that he is too fragile to serve and destined to lose to Donald Trump in November. He has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the Democratic nominee.
Follow live updates on Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential election
“While I intend to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to step aside and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote in a letter posted on X. “I will speak more fully to the Nation about my decision later this week.”
Biden thanked Harris for “being an extraordinary partner” in his letter and then supported her in a subsequent letter. job.
“My very first decision as the party’s nominee in 2020 was to choose Kamala Harris as my vice president,” Biden said. “And it was the best decision I’ve ever made. Today, I want to offer my full support and endorsement to Kamala to be our party’s nominee this year.”
Biden and Harris spoke today ahead of the president’s announcement, according to a source close to the campaign.
His retirement caps a singular national political career, framed by the fall of Richard Nixon and the rise of Trump. He ran for four terms as president. He spent 36 years in the U.S. Senate, representing tiny Delaware. He rose to the chairmanship of the powerful Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees. And he served eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president.
Reactions from politicians quickly began to pour in.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a message on X that Biden “has been an extraordinary, history-making president — a leader who fought hard for working people and delivered amazing results for all Americans.”
“He will go down in history as one of the most influential and selfless presidents,” said Newsom, who was one of Biden’s most prominent spokesmen. Newsom has also been discussed as a possible Democratic presidential candidate.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, another leading Democrat who is being talked about as a future national candidate, called Biden a “great public servant” in a message to X.
“My job in this election will remain the same: to do everything I can to elect Democrats and stop Donald Trump, a convicted felon whose agenda of raising costs for families, banning abortion nationwide, and abusing the power of the White House to settle his own scores is completely wrong for Michigan,” Whitmer wrote.
The president’s granddaughter, Naomi Biden, said in a message that she was “simply proud today of my father,” adding that he “served our country with all his soul and with unmatched distinction.” First lady Jill Biden posted her husband’s statement on X with a heart emoji.
Across the aisle, Republicans criticized the move and many called on him to resign from his post, days after the end of a Republican National Convention where speaker after speaker criticized the Biden-Harris ticket.
“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for president, he is not fit to hold office. He should resign immediately,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.
In a brief phone interview with NBC News, Trump responded to Biden’s decision, calling the president “by far the worst president in the history of the United States.”
Asked if he was surprised by Biden’s decision, Trump said Biden “should never have been there in the first place.”
“He should have stayed in his basement,” Trump said.
In a fundraising email, Trump’s campaign said Biden “left the race in disgrace.”
An unprecedented decision
Biden’s decision to drop out of the race less than a month before his party’s convention and months before voters go to the polls is unprecedented in modern politics. The last sitting president to drop out of reelection was Lyndon Johnson, whose expansion of the Vietnam War in the 1960s split the Democratic Party. But Johnson’s announcement came in March 1968, eight months before this election.
“We’re in uncharted territory,” said Barbara Perry, a professor of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “No president has dropped out or died this close to the convention.”
Biden’s replacement at the top of the Democratic ticket risks triggering internal turmoil within the party, as ambitious officials jockey to become his successor. Factions have already formed around Harris, Whitmer and Newsom.
Harris appears to be the heir apparent to the White House. She broke a barrier by becoming the first female vice president. As a woman of color, she enjoys strong support among African Americans, a staunch part of the Democratic coalition. Overall, however, Harris’ approval rating stands at just 32 percent in an NBC News poll released earlier this month.
“There’s no one you can name right now who’s an obvious replacement,” Perry said. “That’s what makes it so uncertain and chaotic.”
Unlike Republican delegates, who are tied to their candidate, Democratic delegates are not. So they are free to do whatever they want at the convention. Biden may have some influence over delegates, but they may vote for a different candidate than the one he chose, pending the convention rules changing to address this unprecedented situation. The current rules state that delegates must simply “reflect in good conscience the sentiments of those who elected them.”
The mechanism for putting a new name on the ballot also raises myriad legal questions. Republicans could seek to throw obstacles in the candidate’s path by launching legal challenges aimed at preventing that person from appearing on the ballot.
Questions about Biden’s abilities have dogged him throughout his presidency, but came to a head after his debate with Trump on June 27. Combined with his declining poll numbers, his listless performance sparked panic within his own party, which believed he could not win in November.
In front of 51 million viewers, Biden spoke in a raspy voice and often failed to finish his thoughts or provide a convincing explanation of why voters should choose him over Trump. He later attributed his poor performance to exhaustion and a cold. He implored the country not to let a bad night overshadow his accomplishments in office.
Unconvinced Democratic lawmakers began calling on him to step down, a rebellion that started slowly but gradually grew in size and intensity. Thirty-seven congressional Democrats, including independent Sen. Joe Manchin, who was previously a member of the Democratic Party, had called on Biden to withdraw from the 2024 election before he made his decision Sunday afternoon.
They appealed to Biden’s patriotism, saying that if he sincerely believed Trump was a threat to democracy, he should put his country first and step down.
Biden fought back. He held numerous calls and meetings with Democratic officials at all levels to build support within the party, but to no avail.
To allay fears about his acumen, he gave interviews and held news conferences to prove to voters that he could still think quickly. But the gaffes continued and his poll numbers remained stagnant.
In another stroke of bad luck and timing, Biden tested positive for Covid-19 on July 17, forcing him off the campaign trail.
For Democrats, Biden’s illness has created an unwelcome contrast. As Trump delivered a triumphant speech accepting the Republican nomination in Milwaukee on July 18, five days after surviving an assassination attempt, Biden was in isolation at home.
Biden’s departure is the latest in a series of upheavals that have made the 2024 presidential race the most chaotic in living memory. Trump easily won the Republican presidential nomination despite splitting his time between the campaign trail and various courts where he faced criminal and civil charges. In May, a Manhattan jury convicted him of 34 counts related to paying bribes to a porn star.
Then, in short order, Trump bounced back. The Supreme Court issued a long-awaited decision on July 1 that immunized Trump from any official conduct while president, thwarting special counsel Jack Smith’s efforts to prosecute Trump for interference in the 2020 election.
Trump nearly died on July 13 while attending a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A gunman lying on a rooftop 130 yards away fired a bullet that grazed his ear. Trump threw himself to the ground to defend himself. Then, his face covered in blood, he stood up and raised his fist in defiance, shouting “Fight!”
Another fortuitous event occurred two days later, coinciding with the opening of the Republican convention in Milwaukee that certified Trump’s nomination. Federal Judge Aileen Cannon of Florida dismissed a separate lawsuit filed by Smith alleging that Trump improperly retained classified documents that he took home when he left the White House in 2021. Cannon, who had been appointed by Trump, ruled that Smith’s nomination was illegal. Smith quickly appealed her decision.
The series of news gave Trump new momentum, allowing Republicans to present a forceful and unified front at this month’s convention.
Biden has rarely generated such enthusiasm. His primary campaign was mostly a coronation. He faced token opposition as party leaders sorted through the ballots, betting that after beating Trump once before, Biden was best positioned to do it again. But poll after poll showed that voters harbored doubts about him, seeing him as too old and infirm to serve another term.
An AP-NORC poll released July 17 found that 65% of Democrats thought Biden should withdraw from the race.
Pressured by his voters, abandoned by party leaders, Biden gave in.
