In a stunning move, President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 contest due to his cognitive impairment and his slim odds of defeating Donald Trump. This decision was spurred by the Democrats’ unrelenting campaign.
Following his poor performance in the presidential debate, which set off a string of gaffes he was unable to recover from, the 81-year-old resigned on Sunday, July 21, 2024, after weeks of speculation over his suitability to hold the position.
24 days after the debate and after a 50-year political career that culminated in the White House, he makes this momentous step.
Shortly after announcing his historic decision in a one-page letter in which he vowed to serve out his whole term, Biden tweeted his support for Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him.
Now Democrats must race to shore up their campaign behind a new nominee with less than four months until voting day.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president,” Biden wrote in a letter posted to his X account on Sunday.
“And while it has been my intention to seek reelection,” he went on, “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.”
President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and ended his reelection bid after a slew of backlash for his car crash debate performance on June 27 against Donald Trump.
The announcement came the same day a slew of Biden’s allies went on the airwaves to insist the president was not stepping down and would continue his reelection efforts.
Biden said he would speak in more detail about his decision in remarks to the country later this week.
Last week, Biden was pulled from the campaign trail after he was diagnosed with COVID-19 in the middle of a west Coast swing. This led to even more speculation that he would soon drop out of the race.
It came after the showdown against Trump last month, where Biden was often seen on a split screen with his mouth agape and a million-mile blank stare. During his time to speak at the podium, the president would stumble, freeze, lose his train of thought, and mumble his way through answers to the moderator’s questions.
At one point, just 12 minutes into the debate, Trump said: “I don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.”
Trump said in a post-debate rally in Chesapeake, Virginia, that he was skeptical Biden would drop out of the race, claiming Democrats don’t have a better option against him in November.
Trump immediately responded to Biden’s decision in a call with CNN on Sunday.
“He is the worst president in the history of our country,” the former president said in the call. “He goes down as the single worst president by far in the history of our country.”
Trump said he thinks Harris will be even easier to defeat than Biden.
The former president also took to his Twitter account to respond to the news that he will no longer face Biden in November.
“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for president and is certainly not fit to serve—and never was! He only attained the position of president by lies, fake news, and not leaving his basement,” he wrote. “All those around him, including his doctor and the media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being president, and he wasn’t.”
Trump concluded: “We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly.”
Biden was not yet the Democratic Party’s official nominee and there is still a short time to replace him before the Democratic National Convention next month.
The party’s nominating convention is August 19-22 in Chicago, Illinois and it now appears that Harris will be at the top of the Democratic ticket by the end of that week.