By: Annie Wang
In an unexpected move on Sunday, July 21, President Joe Biden announced on X that he would be withdrawing from the presidential election for the benefit of his party. He then gave his support to Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the Democratic Party.
Biden sent a letter on X that he would be withdrawing from the 2024 Presidential Election saying, “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.” He then supported Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the Party in beating Trump by posting on X: “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.”
Leading up to Biden’s decision to drop out from the election, he was encouraged by many to withdraw, especially after his debate in June and a meeting with NATO leaders in Washington. In the meeting with NATO, he had introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin”, and referred to Ms. Harris as “Vice President Trump” mistakenly. Because of many reasons like that, Biden was faced with much pressure to drop out. In one interview, Biden declared that only the “Lord Almighty” could make him withdraw, but then later said he would consider doing so if he had a health condition. Nevertheless, on Sunday, Biden did indeed announce that he would be withdrawing after much political pressure.
Biden’s decision to leave the presidential race forces the Democratic Party to reconsider their candidate. Currently, many people are endorsing Kamala Harris. Former president Bill Clinton and 2016 Democratic candidate for president Hillary Clinton said they backed Harris as the party’s candidate for November’s vote, saying they would “fight with everything we’ve got to elect her”. But before the Democratic National Convention this year on August 19 in Chicago, other candidates could also become nominees if the virtual vote doesn’t lock in on one nominee. Therefore, we could be seeing an open convention, for Kamala Harris does not have a very long time before the elections are coming up.