United States President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he is withdrawing from the presidential election race and endorsed Kamala Harris to take his place against Donald Trump this November.
“It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve as your President,” Biden said in a statement released Sunday shortly before 2 p.m. ET.
“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,” he said.
Biden said he would address the nation later this week to provide more details about his decision.
In a separate statement, Biden gave his endorsement to his vice-president, Kamala Harris.
“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,” he said.
“Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
Biden plans to serve out the remainder of his term in office, which ends at noon ET on Jan. 20, 2025.
Politicians react
After Biden’s announcement, Democrats and Republicans swiftly took to social media to express their appreciation, praising him for his decision.
“Joe Biden has not only been a great president and a great legislative leader but he’s a truly amazing human being. His decision of course was not easy, but he once again put his country, his party, and our future first. Joe, today shows you are a true patriot and great American,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on X.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also thanked Biden on X, stating the president, “is a great public servant who knows better than anyone what it takes to defeat Donald Trump.”
Biden’s granddaughter, Naomi Biden praised her grandfather, stating “I’m nothing but proud today of my Pop, our President, Joe Biden, who has served our country with every bit of his soul and with unmatched distinction,” on X.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson took to X, calling for Biden’s resignation.
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“At this unprecedented juncture in American history, we must be clear about what just happened. The Democrat Party forced the Democrat nominee off the ballot, just over 100 days before the election,” he said.
“Having invalidated the votes of more than 14 million Americans who selected Joe Biden to be the Democrat nominee for president, the self-proclaimed ‘party of democracy’ has proven exactly the opposite. If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.”
And Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, criticizing Biden’s presidential run.
Biden changes his mind
Before Biden’s announcement to drop out of the presidential race, he had insisted he planned to stay in, expressing confidence that he could defeat Trump again this year.
The president had been isolating at his home in Delaware after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this week.
But while Biden isolated, many top Democrats had privately and publicly expressed concern over his ability to beat Trump, citing concerns about this age.
On July 18, several media outlets reported that former U.S. president Barack Obama had privately expressed concerns to Democrats about Biden’s candidacy. And Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi privately warned Biden that Democrats could lose the ability to seize control in the House if he didn’t step away from the race.
California Rep. Adam Schiff, on July 17, called on Biden to drop his reelection bid, saying that while the decision is Biden’s alone to make, he believes it’s time to “pass the torch.”
Biden, 81, was elected president on Nov. 3, 2020, along with his running mate, Harris. He took office on Jan. 20, 2021.
The U.S. presidential election is slated for Nov. 5.
A party’s presumptive presidential nominee has never stepped out of the race so close to the election. The closest parallel would be President Lyndon Johnson who, besieged by the Vietnam War, announced in March 1968 that he would not seek another term.
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to be held Aug. 19 to 22 in Chicago, but the party had announced that it would hold a virtual roll call to formally nominate Biden before in-person proceedings begin.
It remained to be seen whether other candidates would challenge Harris for the nomination.
- With files from the Associates Press and Reuters