President Joe Biden has dropped out of the 2024 presidential election race , bowing to more than a month of sustained pressure, and sparking an extraordinary scramble to replace him just months out from November's vote.
"It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president," Biden wrote in a letter Sunday. "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."
In the letter, Biden previewed that he would address the nation "later this week" but declined to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.
"For now let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected," he wrote. "I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work."
Moments later in a separate post on social media, Biden provided that very endorsement, underscoring that Harris has his "full support" to "be the nominee of our party this year."
"My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President," he wrote. "It’s been the best decision I’ve made... Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this."
Harris, who Biden advised of his decision in a phone call as many of his aides learned of it on X, described being "honored" by the president's endorsement.
“My intention is to earn and win this nomination," she wrote . "Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead. 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."
In a sign her ascension to the top of the ticket may not be a formality, however, former President Barack Obama declined to endorse her in his statement praising Biden.
Biden's decision, announced from Delaware, where the president is recovering from COVID-19 , comes more than a month after his opening debate against his Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump . During the debate, Biden repeatedly lost his train of thought, and at times stood with his mouth agape, sparking full blown panic in the Democratic party. Ironically, the Biden campaign had pushed for an early debate in the hope of changing the dynamics of a race in which the president is polling behind his predecessor in key battleground states.
"Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for president, and is certainly not fit to serve — and never was," Trump wrote on Sunday. "We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly. Make America Great Again!"
Republicans, from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to Rep. Elise Stefanik , also started putting pressure on Biden to resign as president immediately.
"If Joe Biden is not fit to run for president, he is not fit to serve as president," Johnson wrote. "November 5 cannot arrive soon enough."
Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, who consulted on Harris' 2020 presidential campaign, dismissed Republican criticism, contending instead that Democrats are "fired up."
"Done with the infighting and ready to get back on offense to talk about the issues that matter," Nellis told the Washington Examiner. "I'm personally excited we can get back to talking about how we're going to help people — protecting abortion and IVF rights , child care , an economy that works for everybody, and more."
"I don't have any concerns about things getting messy," he said. "Vice President Harris says she wants to earn it and I believe her. She's going to do the work and the process will be transparent and democratic. Healthy, even."
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) precipitated the bursting of the political dam earlier this month when he became the first elected congressional Democrat to ask Biden to step down as the party's 2024 presumptive nominee.
Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), two House Democrats with competitive reelection campaigns this November, then took a different approach, emphasizing that Biden was poised to lose to Trump.
In the weeks that followed, Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), sat down with Biden to discuss his candidacy and how it could affect the down-ballot races, in addition to the party more broadly. That is despite some Democrats imploring Biden to prove himself in more extemporaneous opportunities, such as interviews with ABC's George Stephanopoulos and NBC's Lester Holt , as well as a press conference on the sidelines of the 75th NATO summit. At the same time, tensions with Democrats, most notably donors, remained, evidenced by a terse conversation between Biden and Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) related to national security during a phone call with New Democrats.
“It’s not breaking through, Mr. President … to our voters," Crow said.
“You oughta talk about it!” Biden replied. “On national security, nobody has been a better president than I’ve been. Name me one. Name me one! So I don’t want to hear that crap!”
Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) both thanked Biden for his public service Sunday, but did not endorse Harris, unlike former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton .
"We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead," Obama wrote. "I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges."
"President Joe Biden is a patriotic American who has always put our country first," Pelosi added. "His legacy of vision, values and leadership make him one of the most consequential presidents in American history."
Since the debate, Trump's assassination attempt, and Biden's COVID-19 diagnosis, 37 Democrats have urged the president to stand down as their party's nominee, with Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) adding his voice to the chorus Sunday.
Rank-and-file Democrats, rankled by the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee 's response to the president's debate, have criticized leaders in both camps, too, for downplaying, even mocking, their concerns.
"The work that we must do now, while unprecedented, is clear," DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison wrote Sunday. "In the coming days, the party will undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November. This process will be governed by established rules and procedures of the party. Our delegates are prepared to take seriously their responsibility in swiftly delivering a candidate to the American people."
After aides attributed Biden's bad debate to a cold, the president apportioned responsibility to his travel to Europe for the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the Group of 7 leaders summit during a fundraiser in Virginia last month. The president spent the week prior to the debate preparing at Camp David.
“I decided to travel around the world a couple of times … shortly before the debate," Biden told donors. "I didn’t listen to my staff and then I almost fell asleep onstage.” “It’s not an excuse, but an explanation,” he said.
The Democratic National Convention , held to nominate the party's nominee, is scheduled to commence in Chicago next month, but this year there will be a virtual roll call beforehand so the standard-bearer can be on the ticket in Ohio after a since-resolved deadline issue with the Buckeye State's ballot access laws.
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"The formal process to have a candidate's name placed in nomination is to submit a petition with the signatures of at least 300 delegates, no more than 50 of which can come from one state," FrontloadingHQ political scientist Joshua Putnam told the Washington Examiner. "The inherent advantage the vice president has is that President Biden endorsed her today. Joe Biden won 98.7 percent of the pledged delegates during primary season and while he cannot transfer them directly to her, the method in which those nearly 4000 delegates were chosen means that they are highly likely to take the president's endorsement into consideration."
"She will also have a money advantage," Putnam continued. "Biden can transfer the money they have raised for the reelection effort over to Harris more easily under campaign finance law than would be the case if anyone else was newly at the top of the ticket."
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