US President Joe Biden on Sunday stunningly ended his 2024 reelection bid against former President Donald Trump.
The 81-year-old Biden, with declining national polling numbers against the Republican challenger he defeated in the 2020 election, made the announcement as he was recovering from his third bout with COVID-19 at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, vacation home near the Atlantic Ocean.
He endorsed his second-in-command, Vice President Kamala Harris, to be the Democratic presidential nominee to run against Trump in the November 5 election. She would be the first Black woman and south Asian major party presidential nominee in the 248-year history of the United States.
A growing number of Democratic leaders had in recent days called for Biden to step down since his faltering debate performance against Trump in late June.
But Biden, a five-decade veteran on the Washington political scene, had insisted he would not drop out unless “the Lord Almighty” asked him to or if he was shown in polling numbers that he could not beat Trump a second time or advised by his doctors he was not physically able to continue.
On Sunday, he said in a statement, “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 reminder of my term,” which ends in January.
Biden said Harris has been an “extraordinary partner” and has his “full support and endorsement” to be “the nominee of our party this year.” Biden said he would speak later to the country about his decision.
Numerous party officials have said they support Harris to replace Biden as the party’s standard bearer against Trump in the race for a new presidential term starting next January.
But some others have said they want the Democratic Party to open next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago to other presidential nominations as well. If that were to occur, it could throw the convention into disarray.
The last time there was an open convention for the presidential nomination was in 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson dropped his plans to run for reelection in face of widespread opposition to his handling of America’s war against North Vietnam.
Biden faced different opposition, with more than two dozen Democratic lawmakers calling for him to withdraw after his debate showing in which he fumbled answers to questions from two CNN moderators and often appeared to lose his train of thought.
Some people who had been with Biden recently said they believed his mental acuity was diminishing and that he appeared to be frail, although his staunchest aides insisted that he remained mentally sharp.
His single term as president will end January 20, 2025, when a new president is sworn in for a term that lasts until January 2029. (VOA)
