By: Lily Han
On Sunday, July 21st, Biden announced he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential election as the Democratic party candidate. He arrived at this decision after intense pressure from other Democrats. Many democrats were deeply concerned with how fit he is to win against former president Trump after his poor performance in the last debate. Health concerns started to arise after the president started trailing off with “nonsensical answers” and failed to point out many false statements made by the former president. Polls showed “dismal … numbers” with 65% of Democrats stating they would prefer for Biden to give up the run to another candidate. Furthermore, his health looked depleted in a video of him struggling to get off Airforce One. At his vacation house in Delaware, Biden finalized the decision and informed White House and campaign officials through a video call around 1:45 p.m. Biden also sent an online message endorsing Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate. This makes Biden the first current president to drop out of re-elections so late in America’s History.
Given Biden’s Endorsement, Kamala Harris has a stable stance at securing her position as party nominee. However, that doesn’t mean Kamala Harris won’t have to gain support from the Democratic delegates. 250 Democratic delegates, including the Obamas, ( have publicly backed up Harris so far. Pelosi also announced her support for Kamala Harris, and her base of endorsements have been growing since July 22nd. However, many that did pressure Biden to drop out did not specifically back up Harris in statements they made around the president’s decision, and some have not commented on the case. Many of Biden’s campaign aides also seemed unhappy as they looked down at events in the evening. According to The New York Times they “clearly expected Mr. Biden to stay in the race” as the campaign aides were still rushing to make phone calls to gain more support for Biden right before the announcement. Officials expected Biden to stay in the race because last time his aides, in response to the pressure, reassured the public that Biden was not considering abandoning the position. Even though bigger challenges lie ahead as Harris will have to campaign and fundraise in just 106 days, so far, Ms. Harris has shown her competitiveness as many polls show that she may be a little ahead of Trump in her campaign.
The Republican Party candidate, Donald Trump, is not completely satisfied with Biden’s subtle withdrawal. Trump says that he wants Biden to take his withdrawal a step further, claiming “Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for president, and is certainly not fit to serve – And never was.” (Trump, NYT). Other republicans quickly followed and commented that he must resign the office as soon as possible, and that November 5th cannot come soon enough. Although Trump was also questioned by the republicans for his health decline, as he is only a few years younger than Biden, Republicans decided to move forward with his nomination.
This decision will mark the end of Biden’s 54-year career in public office: beginning a little over 5 decades ago with his first election to New Castle County Council in Delaware, 1970, and ending with almost 4 years as the president of the United States of America. Although he was not popular with the voters in 2024, Biden led this country out of one of deadliest pandemics, Covid-19. He also helped promote a 1.5 trillion dollar Covid-19 Relief Package.
Biden writes in his decision letter, “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President, 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.” (Biden, abc news).