President Biden, 81, abandoned his re-election bid on Sunday (21), succumbing to relentless pressure from his closest allies to withdraw from the race amid deep concerns that he is too old and frail to defeat former President Donald J. Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris announced that she would seek the nomination in place of the current president, and many Democrats quickly rallied around her after Biden gave his endorsement.
“While it was my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and my country that I step aside and focus entirely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a statement. He called it “the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president.”
Biden gave Kamala Harris, the vice president, his “full support and endorsement” in a social media post. “Democrats – it’s time for us to unite and defeat Trump.”
Harris said she was “honored” by Biden’s endorsement and that her intention was to “win and earn” the party’s nomination. “Together, we will fight,” she said in a statement. “And together we will win.” After a rocky start as vice president, Harris is now poised to lead her party’s ticket.
Historic Moment
No sitting American president has ever withdrawn from a race this late in the electoral cycle. The Democratic National Convention, where Biden was to be formally nominated by 3,939 delegates, is scheduled to begin on August 19 in Chicago, and Democrats are plotting scenarios for a new nominee.
A crucial question: what happens to the $96 million already in Biden’s campaign coffers? It seems likely that Kamala will inherit them.
Kamala Gains Support
Kamala received a flood of support from her fellow Democrats. Among them: former President Bill Clinton; Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State and Democratic candidate in 2016. Governors Gavin Newsom of California and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, both seen as potential candidates, also backed her, as did several high-profile lawmakers, including leaders of the three main power centers in the Capitol: the Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the centrist New Democrats.
Billionaires and major donors quickly migrated to Kamala, while Democratic voters responded to Biden’s exit with a mix of relief and optimism. ActBlue, the leading site for processing Democratic donations, reported that more than $30 million was raised on Sunday, just hours before the end of the day, making it the largest day for online Democratic contributions since the 2020 elections.
Trump’s Reaction
Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, seized the moment to criticize Biden, stating that he was never fit to be president, and denounced the Washington political ‘establishment’ and the news media, saying they “did everything they could to protect him.”
Source: the New York Times