July 21, 2024 • 7 mins
Joe Biden has officially dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, after a disastrous 25 days which has seen him facing intense pressure after a poor debate showing against Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Biden officially announced he was dropping out of the race via a tweet shortly before 6am this morning.
He followed the announcement with another tweet endorsing his Vice President Kamala Harris as the next Democratic nominee.
US Correspondent Dan Mitchinson joined Nick Mills to talk through what this means for the election, and whether Harris is likely to be challenged by another candidate.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
It'd be now we want to go to America? Joining us? Now?
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Is US correspondent Dan Mitchison, Dan, good morning.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Good morning Nick.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Wow. What happened in the last forty eight hours? I
mean what changed?
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Well? I think the pressure just got to him. I
think he just had enough pressure from some of the
higher ups that he decided that he had to do this.
And one reporter from the New York Times said, there
wasn't a big strategy summit. It was a quiet decision
involved the president and his counselor and his chief strategist.
And I would have to imagine his wife would have
been there, and they worked into the night. And this
(00:51):
was the biggest decision that he had to make in
his life. And then he reached out to Kamala Harris
and he thanked her publicly for being an extraordinary partner.
And then a couple of hours later, Kamala Harrison out
letters saying I am officially in the running. I've got
Joe Biden's endorsement.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Where does that leave you as politics right now? I mean,
you either go with Kamala or you have a battle, don't.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
You, Ah, you do? I mean, I think Democrats are
going to get a short term boost and the pulling
numbers from this. You've got somebody who's younger, who has
a decent connection with the African American community over here,
and they've always been a strong supporter of Democratic Party.
But the Trump campaign has been ready for this. They've
already released ads attacking Harris online and they will probably
(01:35):
continue to roll out their greatest hits of Harris's mistakes
of what she has made quite a few while speaking
on different policies since she was in office.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
I saw her speak after the Great Debate, let's call
it that, and I thought she was amazing. I thought
she was very clear, she was precise, She just came
across really well. Do you reckon that she can win it?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
I don't know at this point, Nick, I would say
a lot is going to have to do on who
she picks as a running mate, and that's still up
in the air. There's at least a half dozen people
that you might say California Governor k Newsom, although likely
since Harris is from California too, they won't do that
because they've got a lock on California. You've got the
(02:22):
governor of Michigan right now, who is in the front running.
I would say the Mark Kelly, who's a senator in
Arizona and a former astronaut as well. So I think
a lot has to do with who she chooses on
that ticket before the convention next month. But at Donald
Trump is just this train that you cannot stop. And
it's hard to imagine anybody that the Democrats could put up,
(02:43):
even if it wasn't Harris, that could beat him in November.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Now you'd be a little bit familiar with what happened
with Jasender I doing in New Zealand politics, right she
came from nowhere, was bright, young, good looking, almost there's
almost a stereotype of what's going on right now in America.
Surely that will gather some sort of momentum.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Well, I think so. I think more than anything is
going to be her connection to the African American community.
I think she will appeal more to women voters and
Democrats have long been been strong on that. We saw
during the Republican Convention that Donald Trump at least goes
around him trying to soften his image with women, to
(03:25):
try to attract more voters, not only from the Republican side,
but from independence, and so I think that's something that
she's going to have going for. But right now, you've
got somebody that's twenty two years or so younger than
Joe Biden is, and I think that's going to play
with some of the younger voters who Democrats and Republicans
have had to try to go after and who just
really aren't happy with a choice on one side or
(03:47):
the other.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Tell me why she's not popular.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
I know she's a tough woman, and she's been a
prosecutor and a tough prosecutor, and she's got dark skin,
and I know all those things. But tell me why
somebody that, on the face of it, from everywhere around
the world looks perfect.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Why is she so unpopular and America.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
I think it's just because she's misspoke quite a few times.
I think, like any vice president, you go back. I mean,
look at dan Quayle. It was a very ungrateful job.
You're doing what the president doesn't have the time to
do or doesn't really want to do. I don't think
she had a lot of experience on the national stage,
and more than anything, I think she's one of those
(04:29):
people that we like to project on, just like Cole
and Powell, who a lot of people when he was
still alive and they were hoping that you might run
for office, you would project what you wanted to see
in a candidate because you didn't know that much about him.
But the more you learned about that candidate, the more
you thought, well, maybe they're not quite the person that
I want to be running in this office, or maybe
they don't have as much experience as I previously thought
(04:51):
they did, or maybe they're not as well spoken or
can't communicate or interact with world leaders like I had hoped. Well,
I think that's been the main reason.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
When do you think that the candidates are going to
put the hand when you reckon it's all going to
happen or is it?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Is it going to happen?
Speaker 4 (05:06):
In terms of Harris being.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
The nominates, Now, we've got two weeks, haven't we Basically.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think they're going to have to.
I mean, they can conduct an open convention, so that
means they're free to vote for whoever they please at
the convention, although they're going to take into the fact
that President Biden has factor or they could have a
broker convention. We haven't seen anything like that in gosh,
I don't know, in decades. And that's where everybody shows up.
They're not committed. They do all the wheeling and dealing
like you've seen in the movies, and they say, Okay,
(05:37):
I'll give my vote to Harris, but I want this
or I want that in exchange, and that could lead
to a lot of votes in a lot of confusion,
and again something we haven't seen since at least the seventies.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
How much you know, Waite's the word I'm looking for.
Will Joe Biden saying that he wants Kamala? How much
will that help?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I think it's going to help a little bit. Right now.
What I'm seeing flooding out is everybody deciding, Okay, what
are we doing with the funding? How do we get
them behind Harris like we did with Biden. David Letterman,
a well known former talk show host here in the States,
was going to hold a big event in a week
in Hawaii for Biden. You have a lot of these
Hollywood stars that have been fundraising for him. But for
(06:19):
the last couple of weeks, with this uncertainty, everybody's been
back in a way. The Chechs haven't been coming in
like they have. They've been very quiet about who they're
going to support because I think they knew that this
day was going to come. They had hoped it was
going to come sooner, but they wanted to wait before
they poured their money into his campaign, and now it's
going to have to go into Kamala's campaign.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
I'm going to put you on the spot here, give
me a night, give me one night, and I'm going
to rid your back. I'm going to call you back
if you got it wrong. If it's not Camilla, who
is it?
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Ah boy, this is going to be a hard one.
The first one that comes to my mind is the
governor of California, Gavin Newsom. I don't know how well
he would play in the heart of the country in
the Midwest, but he's very well known here. Biden's been
using him to travel across the country and he's definitely
gonna brun in twenty twenty eight, even though he's denying it.
(07:13):
I would think he has the looks, he has the Polish,
he has the experience. He would be the candidate that
would probably come out and replace her.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
There you go, appreciate your time. Thank you very much
for joining us in Wellington, Capital and New Zealand. Thanks
for your time, Dan Mitchiton coming to us live from
the state.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news Talks It'd Be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
It'd be now we want to go to America? Joining us? Now?
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Is US correspondent Dan Mitchison, Dan, good morning.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Good morning Nick.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Wow. What happened in the last forty eight hours? I
mean what changed?
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Well? I think the pressure just got to him. I
think he just had enough pressure from some of the
higher ups that he decided that he had to do this.
And one reporter from the New York Times said, there
wasn't a big strategy summit. It was a quiet decision
involved the president and his counselor and his chief strategist.
And I would have to imagine his wife would have
been there, and they worked into the night. And this
(00:51):
was the biggest decision that he had to make in
his life. And then he reached out to Kamala Harris
and he thanked her publicly for being an extraordinary partner.
And then a couple of hours later, Kamala Harrison out
letters saying I am officially in the running. I've got
Joe Biden's endorsement.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Where does that leave you as politics right now? I mean,
you either go with Kamala or you have a battle, don't.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
You, Ah, you do? I mean, I think Democrats are
going to get a short term boost and the pulling
numbers from this. You've got somebody who's younger, who has
a decent connection with the African American community over here,
and they've always been a strong supporter of Democratic Party.
But the Trump campaign has been ready for this. They've
already released ads attacking Harris online and they will probably
(01:35):
continue to roll out their greatest hits of Harris's mistakes
of what she has made quite a few while speaking
on different policies since she was in office.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
I saw her speak after the Great Debate, let's call
it that, and I thought she was amazing. I thought
she was very clear, she was precise, She just came
across really well. Do you reckon that she can win it?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
I don't know at this point, Nick, I would say
a lot is going to have to do on who
she picks as a running mate, and that's still up
in the air. There's at least a half dozen people
that you might say California Governor k Newsom, although likely
since Harris is from California too, they won't do that
because they've got a lock on California. You've got the
(02:22):
governor of Michigan right now, who is in the front running.
I would say the Mark Kelly, who's a senator in
Arizona and a former astronaut as well. So I think
a lot has to do with who she chooses on
that ticket before the convention next month. But at Donald
Trump is just this train that you cannot stop. And
it's hard to imagine anybody that the Democrats could put up,
(02:43):
even if it wasn't Harris, that could beat him in November.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Now you'd be a little bit familiar with what happened
with Jasender I doing in New Zealand politics, right she
came from nowhere, was bright, young, good looking, almost there's
almost a stereotype of what's going on right now in America.
Surely that will gather some sort of momentum.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Well, I think so. I think more than anything is
going to be her connection to the African American community.
I think she will appeal more to women voters and
Democrats have long been been strong on that. We saw
during the Republican Convention that Donald Trump at least goes
around him trying to soften his image with women, to
(03:25):
try to attract more voters, not only from the Republican side,
but from independence, and so I think that's something that
she's going to have going for. But right now, you've
got somebody that's twenty two years or so younger than
Joe Biden is, and I think that's going to play
with some of the younger voters who Democrats and Republicans
have had to try to go after and who just
really aren't happy with a choice on one side or
(03:47):
the other.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Tell me why she's not popular.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
I know she's a tough woman, and she's been a
prosecutor and a tough prosecutor, and she's got dark skin,
and I know all those things. But tell me why
somebody that, on the face of it, from everywhere around
the world looks perfect.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Why is she so unpopular and America.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
I think it's just because she's misspoke quite a few times.
I think, like any vice president, you go back. I mean,
look at dan Quayle. It was a very ungrateful job.
You're doing what the president doesn't have the time to
do or doesn't really want to do. I don't think
she had a lot of experience on the national stage,
and more than anything, I think she's one of those
(04:29):
people that we like to project on, just like Cole
and Powell, who a lot of people when he was
still alive and they were hoping that you might run
for office, you would project what you wanted to see
in a candidate because you didn't know that much about him.
But the more you learned about that candidate, the more
you thought, well, maybe they're not quite the person that
I want to be running in this office, or maybe
they don't have as much experience as I previously thought
(04:51):
they did, or maybe they're not as well spoken or
can't communicate or interact with world leaders like I had hoped. Well,
I think that's been the main reason.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
When do you think that the candidates are going to
put the hand when you reckon it's all going to
happen or is it?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Is it going to happen?
Speaker 4 (05:06):
In terms of Harris being.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
The nominates, Now, we've got two weeks, haven't we Basically.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think they're going to have to.
I mean, they can conduct an open convention, so that
means they're free to vote for whoever they please at
the convention, although they're going to take into the fact
that President Biden has factor or they could have a
broker convention. We haven't seen anything like that in gosh,
I don't know, in decades. And that's where everybody shows up.
They're not committed. They do all the wheeling and dealing
like you've seen in the movies, and they say, Okay,
(05:37):
I'll give my vote to Harris, but I want this
or I want that in exchange, and that could lead
to a lot of votes in a lot of confusion,
and again something we haven't seen since at least the seventies.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
How much you know, Waite's the word I'm looking for.
Will Joe Biden saying that he wants Kamala? How much
will that help?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I think it's going to help a little bit. Right now.
What I'm seeing flooding out is everybody deciding, Okay, what
are we doing with the funding? How do we get
them behind Harris like we did with Biden. David Letterman,
a well known former talk show host here in the States,
was going to hold a big event in a week
in Hawaii for Biden. You have a lot of these
Hollywood stars that have been fundraising for him. But for
(06:19):
the last couple of weeks, with this uncertainty, everybody's been
back in a way. The Chechs haven't been coming in
like they have. They've been very quiet about who they're
going to support because I think they knew that this
day was going to come. They had hoped it was
going to come sooner, but they wanted to wait before
they poured their money into his campaign, and now it's
going to have to go into Kamala's campaign.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
I'm going to put you on the spot here, give
me a night, give me one night, and I'm going
to rid your back. I'm going to call you back
if you got it wrong. If it's not Camilla, who
is it?
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Ah boy, this is going to be a hard one.
The first one that comes to my mind is the
governor of California, Gavin Newsom. I don't know how well
he would play in the heart of the country in
the Midwest, but he's very well known here. Biden's been
using him to travel across the country and he's definitely
gonna brun in twenty twenty eight, even though he's denying it.
(07:13):
I would think he has the looks, he has the Polish,
he has the experience. He would be the candidate that
would probably come out and replace her.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
There you go, appreciate your time. Thank you very much
for joining us in Wellington, Capital and New Zealand. Thanks
for your time, Dan Mitchiton coming to us live from
the state.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news Talks It'd Be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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