Biden drops out, endorses Kamala Harris as Democratic presidential nominee

President Biden dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party's new standard-bearer, a move Democrats hailed as the act of a patriot who put his country above his personal interests.

Biden's announcement ends weeks of Lamentations among party leaders who urged him to drop out of the race after his disastrous performance in last month's debate left many Democrats fearing he was too old for the job and could not defeat former President Trump.

“I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to step down and focus exclusively on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a statement. He said he will address the nation later this week.

A Harris-Trump contest would present a stark contrast between Harris — 59, Black, Asian and the first woman to serve as vice president — and Trump, 78, a convicted felon whose presidency and campaign have been rife with racist and misogynistic overtones. Trump would become the oldest serving president at the end of his term. Harris would be the first female president.

In his initial statement, Biden did not endorse Harris, but later expressed his support for her in a post on X.

“My first decision as our party’s nominee in 2020 was to choose Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it has been the best decision I have ever made. Today, I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be our party’s nominee this year. Democrats, it’s time to come together and defeat Trump. Let’s do it,” Biden wrote.

In her own statement, Harris thanked Biden for his “extraordinary leadership.”

“I am honored to have the president’s endorsement and intend to win this nomination,” she said. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”

Trump took to Truth Social, his social media platform, to write:

“Crooked Joe Biden was unfit to run for president and is certainly unfit to hold office. And he never was!” Trump did not mention the vice president, though his campaign has focused attention on Harris in recent weeks, both at Trump’s campaign rallies and in fundraising emails.

The groundwork for a last-minute presidential nomination change began when Biden, 81, appeared weak and nervous in a June 27 debate against Trump, sending Democrats into a panic.

Overnight, the president's age and mental acuity — long a top concern for voters, polls show — burst into the mainstream conversation among political pundits.

The first sitting Democratic member of Congress to call for Biden's recall was Lloyd Doggett of Texas, whose July 2 comments foreshadowed what other lawmakers and party leaders would say about Biden and the election. Doggett He praised Biden's long service to the country and touted his record, but, turning to the debate, he said: “Instead of reassuring voters, the president failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and exposed Trump’s lies.”

On Sunday, many Democratic leaders applauded Biden's announcement and backed his support for Harris, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“Tough. Fearless. Tenacious,” Newsom said in a post on X. “With our democracy at stake and our future at stake, no one is better able to carry the case against Donald Trump’s dark vision and guide our country in a healthier direction than the Vice President of the United States.”

Former President Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee, thanked Biden for his service and said they were “honored” to endorse Harris.

“Now is the time to stand with Kamala Harris and fight with everything we have to elect her,” the Clintons said in a statement.

Nonprofit fundraising platform ActBlue said that as of 6 p.m. PDT Sunday, $46.7 million had come in from grassroots supporters in the hours since Harris launched her campaign.

Less than 15 minutes before Biden’s announcement, his campaign sent out an email asking supporters to support the Biden-Harris administration’s agenda for “their first 100 days of a second term.” The Indian American Impact Fund has already begun fundraising “to elect the first desi president in American history.”

But other Democrats were notably silent on who would become the Democratic nominee. Former President Obama called Biden a “patriot of the highest order” for resigning, but did not mention Harris.

“In the days ahead we will be navigating uncharted waters,” Obama said in a statement. “But I have extraordinary confidence that our party’s leaders will be able to create a process that will produce an outstanding nominee.”

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who wields enormous influence in the Democratic Party, had reportedly been urging Biden behind the scenes to consider resigning. On Sunday, she applauded his decision but stopped short of endorsing Harris, her fellow Californian.

“His legacy of vision, values, and leadership make him one of the most important presidents in American history,” Pelosi said in a statement. “With love and gratitude to President Biden for always believing in the promise of America and giving people the opportunity to reach their fullness. God blessed America with the greatness and goodness of Joe Biden.”

Doggett urged Democrats to hold an open convention when delegates meet in Chicago next month.

“Once again, President Biden is standing up for America and putting country above ego in a way Donald Trump never could,” he posted on X.

“Now we must move forward and offer a candidate who can win over disaffected voters and energize Democrats.”

Weeks ago, Biden was undeterred by his fellow Democrats' desire for a new leader.

“They’re trying to take me out of the race,” Biden said July 5 at a rally in Wisconsin. “Well, let me say this as clearly as I can: I will stay in the race. I will beat Donald Trump.”

Later that day, Biden’s interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos — and his subsequent performances in two other one-on-one interviews, plus a news conference — did little to repair the damage done by the debate. At times, Biden dithered, dodged questions and again failed to reassure his supporters that he was fit to lead the country.

The ABC interview came after polls showed support for the president was eroding.

As the weeks passed, A trickle of calls Calls for the president to step aside became constant, including from top leaders of his own party.

Actor George Clooney, a prominent Democrat donor and fundraisersaid on July 10 that Democrats are “I'm not going to win in November with this president.” Clooney explained his reasoning in An opinion piece for the New York Times under the headline: “I love Joe Biden, but we need a new candidate.”

On July 17, the representative. Adam B. Schiff Burbank became the most prominent Democrat in Congress up to that point to publicly call on Biden to make way for a new candidate.

“A second Trump presidency would undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump in November,” said Schiff, who is running for Senate in November.

Schiff's statement came the same day that an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll reported that nearly two-thirds of Democrats surveyed said Biden should withdraw from the raceTo cap off a tumultuous few weeks, Biden said Wednesday that he had tested positive for COVID, forcing him to leave the campaign trail.

Biden's decision to withdraw fundamentally reshapes the 2024 campaign for both Democrats and Republicans, and could provide a welcome boost for Democrats who have faced dwindling support from a relatively apathetic electorate.

Polls have repeatedly shown that many Americans were wary of a repeat of the Biden-Trump contest of 2020. Biden, in particular, struggled to overcome voters' concerns that he would be fit to govern the country well into his 80s.

Biden also faced criticism, particularly from young and black voters, for his handling of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Although Biden easily won every Democratic primary so far, thousands of disaffected Americans voted “not committed” in several states, in an effort by pro-Palestinian protesters to express their discontent over their support for Israel.

The president's term will culminate a government career that began More than 50 years ago, when Biden was elected in 1970 to a seat on the New Castle County Council in Delaware.

He represented Delaware in the Senate for 36 years and maintained close political relationships with a broad spectrum of Senate Republican and Democratic colleagues. He also chaired the influential Senate Judiciary Committee, which confirmed Justice Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court in 1991 despite a widely publicized controversy involving sexual harassment allegations.

During his tenure as a senator, Biden long harbored presidential aspirations: He ran for the top office in 1988 and again in 2008 before accepting Obama's invitation to serve as vice president.

After two terms as second in command, Biden once again launched his own presidential campaign in 2020, emerging from the middle of the Democratic field to clinch the nomination.

The results of the 2020 election, which took place amid the historic COVID-19 pandemic, came down to narrow margins in a handful of key states, with the final count dragging on for several days.

Even before taking office, Biden faced unprecedented challenges to his presidency when a group of pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the day Congress was scheduled to certify the election results.

Biden presided over a deeply divided Congress but pushed through pandemic relief packages and signed the Inflation Reduction Act, the nation's largest package of initiatives to date to combat climate change.

He also led a chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021 that drew criticism from many in his own party.

While Democrats did not decide Sunday who would face Trump, many offered Biden a unified message of gratitude.

“For him to look at the political landscape and decide that he must pass the torch to a new candidate is surely one of the most difficult moments of his life,” Obama said in his statement.

“But I know I wouldn’t make this decision unless I believed it was best for America.”