By: Benjamin He
In a recent turn of events, President Biden, 81,has decided to step down as the main presidential nominee for the Democratic party on Sunday. Mr. Biden has decided to step out of the race and fully endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, to be the new presidential candidate, throwing her his full support in an effort to keep Trump from becoming president. According to a CBS News polling, Biden was losing ground to Trump, particularly in two groups: voters of color and younger voters.
In a letter posted on social media, Mr. Biden stated that he believed it was “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.” After the message was posted, a follow-up letter came, stating that Mr. Biden endorsed Ms. Harris. “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.” The message stated. “Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
Ms. Harris now only has 106 days (as of July 22) to buttress her campaign, gain support from the Democrat party, and prove to the nation that she would make a good president. Fortunately for her, recent polls and reports have shown that she is very close behind Trump in the race. Time Magazine shows that Harris is behind Trump by a “small, not insurmountable margin of 1.5 percentage points on average, according to an analysis done by the Washington Post of 11 different pollsters.”
President Biden promised more details later this week covering his decision to step out of his campaign, but he is unavailable for now, as he is recovering from Covid at his vacation house in Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.
Mr. Biden was reported to have started to change his mind last Saturday, at the house in Rehoboth Beach. Many in his own party believed that he was too frail to keep serving. On Sunday morning, the decision was finalized, and a video call was held with senior White House and campaign officials to notify them about his decision at 1:45 PM. Additionally, he also called three people to notify them of this: Ms. Harris; Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House chief of staff; and Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, his campaign chair.
In the entire history of the United States, not a single President has ever dropped out of the campaign this late, and Ms. Harris and her campaign will have their work cut out for them as they attempt to earn the support of around 4,000 delegates over the course of several weeks.