Biden ends faltering re-election campaign

US President Joe Biden dropped his faltering re-election bid on Sunday, amid intensifying opposition within his own Democratic Party, and endorsed Vice President Ka-mala Harris to replace him as the party’s candidate against Republican Donald Trump.

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 nation this week. “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden wrote.

“And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the coun-try for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the  remainder of my term,” he added.

His initial statement had not included an endorsement of Harris, but he followed up a few minutes later with an expression of support. Harris, 59, would become the first Black woman to run at the top of a major-party ticket in the country’s history.

Biden’s campaign had been on the ropes since a disas-trous June 27 debate against former President Trump, 78, in which he struggled to finish his thoughts. Opposi-tion from within his party gained steam over the past week with 36 congressional Democrats publicly calling on him to stand down.

Democratic lawmakers said they feared Biden could cost them not only the White House but also the chance to control either chamber of Congress in the November 5 election, leaving Democratic party with no meaningful grasp on power.

That stood in sharp contrast to what played out in the Republican Party last week, when members united around Trump and his running mate Senator JD Vance, 39. Trump told CNN on Sunday that he believed Harris would be easier to defeat.

Biden had a last-minute change of heart, said a source familiar with the matter. The president told allies that as of Saturday night he planned to stay in the race before changing his mind on Sunday afternoon. “Last night the message was proceed with everything, full speed ahead,” the source told Reuters.

“At around 1:45 pm today: the president told his senior team that he had changed his mind,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Biden announced his decision on social media within minutes.

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

If Harris emerges as the nominee, the move would repre-sent an unprecedented gamble by the Democratic Party: its first Black and Asian American woman to run for the White House in a country that has elected one Black president and never a woman president in more than two centuries.

Biden was the oldest US president ever elected when he beat Trump in 2020. During that campaign, Biden de-scribed himself as a bridge to the next generation of Democratic leaders. Some interpreted that to mean he would serve one term.

But he set his sights on a second term in the belief that he was the only Democrat who could beat Trump again. In recent times, though, his advanced age began to show through more, his gait became stilted and his childhood stutter occasionally returned.

Biden’s departure sets up a stark new contrast, between the Democrats’ presumptive new nominee, Harris, a former prosecutor, and Trump who is two decades her senior and faces two outstanding criminal prosecutions related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election re-sult.

In 2020, Trump got 7 million less votes than Biden and lost key battleground states, including tight races in Pennsylvania and Georgia. Before the elections, Trump is due to be sentenced in New York in September on a con-viction for trying to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star.

In a phone call with CNN minutes after Biden’s an-nouncement, Trump said, “He is the worst president in the history of our country. He goes down as the single worst president by far in the history of our country.” He added that Vice President Kamala Harris will be easier to defeat than Biden.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that Biden’s decision 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,” the Democrat said in a statement.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said: “President Biden has been an extraordinary, history-making presi-dent – a leader who has fought hard for working people and delivered astonishing results for all Americans. He will go down in history as one of the most impactful and selfless presidents.”

Reuters