By: Claire Zhou
On Sunday July 21, President Biden withdrew from his campaign, endorsing vice president Kamala Harris to take over instead. With pressure from Democrats, Biden made this decision to stop the former president, Donald Trump, from having the possibility of coming back to his position.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President, and while it has been my intention to seek re-election, 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 said in a response on social media.
This decision has made history, as no former president has dropped out of a race this far into the election cycle. Ms. Harris and other democratic contenders have mere weeks to gain the support of nearly 4,000 delegates for the Democratic National Convention. No other candidates have announced that they will jump in.
Not only is Kamala Harris starting this competition against other Democrats in the strongest position, she also has a large amount of Democratic support from important political voices such as former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In response to the President’s decision, Kamala Harris claims that Mr. Biden’s choice is “selfless and patriotic” and that she is “honored to have the president’s endorsement.” She also added “I will do everything in my power to unite the democratic party and unite our nation – to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”
Mr. Trump responded online to Mr. Biden with a snarky remark stating “Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve – And never was!” Fellow Republican and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Mike Johnson added on saying, “If Joe Biden is not fit to run for president, he is not fit to serve as president.” Later on he said “He must resign the office immediately. Nov. 5 cannot arrive soon enough.”
Mr. Trump has recently shown signs of a cognitive decline such as incoherent rambling at interviews, and occasionally confusing names, dates, and facts. It is evident however, that after the presidential debate which took place on June 27, more Democrats questioned Mr. Biden’s ability to further lead the country than Republicans did Mr. Trump.
President Biden consistently used the same argument throughout his campaign, stating that he had been the only one to defeat Mr. Trump in the election, meaning he was the best option to do it once more. However it seems that Mr. Biden has finally accepted that even the people of his own party are saying he is too old to run a second term.