Richard Arnold: US President Joe Biden standing down from 2024 presidential race, endorses Kamala Harris

• Joe Biden has pulled out of the election race, saying it was in the best interest of the Democrat party and the country for him to stand down as candidate.
• Democrats had been calling for him to stand aside, over increasing concerns for his health and ability to win the election race against Donald Trump.
• He made a series of gaffes in recent months that raised questions about his ability to hold the position for another term.
• Biden endorsed Kamala Harris as the next leader for the party.

US President Joe Biden has ended his re-election campaign after fellow Democrats lost faith in his mental acuity and ability to beat Donald Trump, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the party’s candidate.

Biden, 81, in a post on X, said he will remain in his role as president and commander-in-chief until his term ends in January 2025 and will address the public this week.

STORY CONTINUES AFTER BLOG

STORY CONTINUES

“It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve as your President. 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 my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote.

His initial statement had not included an endorsement of Harris but he followed up a few minutes later with a post including an expression of support.

His move could clear the way for Harris, 59, to run at the top of the ticket.

It was unclear whether other senior Democrats would challenge Harris for the party’s nomination – she was widely seen as the pick for many party officials – or whether the party itself would choose to open the field for nominations.

Biden as of Saturday night had planned to stay in the 2024 presidential race, but told senior staff on Sunday afternoon that he was withdrawing, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

“Last night the message was proceed with everything, full speed ahead,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“At around 1.45pm today: the president told his senior team that he had changed his mind.”

Biden’s announcement follows a wave of public and private pressure from Democratic lawmakers and party officials to quit the race after his poor performance in a June 27 televised debate last month against Republican rival Trump, 78.

Days later he raised fresh concerns in an interview, shrugging off Democrats’ worries and a widening gap in opinion polls, and saying he would be fine losing to Trump if he knew he’d “gave it my all”.

His gaffes at a Nato summit – invoking Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name when he meant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and calling Harris “Vice President Trump” – further stoked anxieties.

Only four days before Sunday’s announcement, Biden was diagnosed with Covid-19 for a third time, forcing him to cut short a campaign trip to Las Vegas.

More than one in 10 congressional Democrats had called publicly for him to quit the race.

Biden’s historic move – the first sitting president to give up his party’s nomination for re-election since President Lyndon Johnson in March 1968 – leaves his replacement with less than four months to wage a campaign.

Biden was the oldest US president ever elected when he beat Trump in 2020.

During that campaign, Biden described himself as a bridge to the next generation of Democrat

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Richard arnold'st outside morning good, what do you make?

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Good?

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Way to start the week?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Eh, stunning. We anticipated this still it is a stunner
uncharted territory. As you've been outlining what a political season
this has turned out to be. After days and days,
what almost three weeks of Joe Biden insisting he would
never quit his reelection bid, he does so in this
one page letter, written while he has retreated at his
beach house in Delaware, where he is also because recovering

(00:25):
from his latest about with COVID. He writes it is
in the best interests of his Democratic Party and the
country that he stands down. Biden says he will address
the nation and the world later this week and that
he will quote focus on fulfilling his duties as president
for the rest of his term in quote so not
quitting the presidency at the minute, even as some Trump
Republicans have been calling on him to do so. This

(00:48):
announcement by President Biden comes following all this period when
his administration of the entire Democratic Party was basically twisting
in the wind, and ends one crisis for the party.
But as you indicate, opens up and he has endorsed
his VP couple of Harris, But will that stand? Harris
has access course to millions in Biden Harris campaign cash.
Other say no, no, no, there should be this open primary.

(01:10):
How would that happen? You've been talking about some of
the convention process. It's no US political convention has gone
past the first ballot since well, not in my lifetime.
I think it was nineteen fifty two the last time.
How will this play out among other potential Democratic hopes,
as the national reputation to put together a campaign being limited,

(01:34):
or is there a whole host of people you mention
folks like and he bashered Gavin Newsom, Gritch and Whitmer,
all of these possibilities. But the clock is certainly ticking.
We have never seen a US president sitting US president
quitting a reelection race so late in the political season.
Republicans already because had their convention. The Democrat gathering is
set for Chicago in just a few weeks, just undred months,

(01:55):
it is. As for what was going into Biden's decision,
there is this from famed reporter Bernstein of Watergate, Woodward
and Bernstein's fame, who has sources in the Biden camp.
Here's what he said, of Biden just prior to his announcement.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
President is angry. He feels abandoned. The word abandon was
used several times in discussions I've had with people in
the White House. The people that he has supported through
his political career and helped advance through the ladder of
leadership in Washington have now turned their back on him,
in his view and in a really ugly way.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
So something of the inside view, However, the Yanks was
building elsewhere. You poll out today just prior to the
Biden announcement showed sixty one percent of Democrats thought Biden
should quit the race. Joining them earlier today was Senator
Joe Manchin, an independent who caucuses with the Dems and
has known Biden well for decades. Really, he joined those
calling for Biden to withdraw and save his reputation.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
The time has come for him to pass the torch
to new.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Generation, past the torch while you still have the party's respect,
is what Manchin was saying.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
He can finish this job that he started and finished
it where he wanted to lead.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
So does he have the wherewithal to do so? Sure,
says Mansion. Political campaigns are a kicker when you take
that out of the equation, it's a different thing. But
when you're president of doing this campaigning at the same time,
it is excruciating. Israel's PM Netanyahu is Stewart Washington tomorrow.
There's timing for you at a point when all this
is swirling. This is going to be one of the
most volatile, unpredictable, extraordinary political campaign finales we have seen.

(03:27):
It's already that I'm taking a breather for a few days.
Back in time for the convention fights. Trump has taken
off his bandage and is playing the hero role at
his first post convention rally, saying he quote took a
bullet for democracy. They are also selling t shirts with
the photo of the bloody deer and the fist in
the air and all that stuff. Meantime, he is turning

(03:47):
his attacks onto Vice President Harris Kamala.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
I call her laugh and Kamala never watch a laugh.
She's crazy.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
So she's nuts, he said. Later, So it begins, all.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Right, might go well, we'll see in a couple of weeks.
Appreciate it very much, Rich Arnold state side. Just if
you didn't see it in tragics like me in our
thirty two the thing that was disappointing about Trump on
Friday was not the fact that he played to himself
as usual, but the fact he claimed to be a
different person and a change person, and you were going
to hear a different message. And for about three and

(04:17):
a half minutes at the start, and they wheeled out
the dead man's hat in his uniform, and he went
over and kissed it, and you thought, right, we might
be onto something. And then that, basically for the next
hour and twenty was it, as he returned to everything
he always was. So But having said all of that,
the way this is unfolded this morning, he probably doesn't
care because I'm sure they feel be home free for

Speaker 2 (04:38):
More from the Mic Asking Breakfast, Listen live to news
talks it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.