President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he will end his presidential re-election campaign, bringing an abrupt and humbling conclusion to his half-century-long political career and scrambling the race for the White House just four months before Election Day.
Biden, 81, could not reverse growing sentiment within his party that he was too frail to serve and destined to lose to Donald Trump in November. He backed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the Democratic nominee.
âWhile 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,â Biden wrote in a letter posted on X. âI will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision.â
Biden thanked Harris for âbeing an extraordinary partnerâ in his letter and then endorsed her in a subsequent post.
“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,” Biden posted. “And itâs been the best decision Iâve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.”
Biden and Harris spoke today ahead of the presidentâs announcement, according to a source familiar with the campaign.
His withdrawal caps a singular national political career, bookended by Richard Nixonâs fall and Trumpâs rise. He mounted four presidential bids. He spent 36 years in the U.S. Senate representing tiny Delaware. He rose to the chairmanships of the powerful Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees. And he served eight years as Barack Obamaâs vice president.
Reactions from politicians quickly began pouring in.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a post on X that Biden âhas been an extraordinary, history-making president â a leader who has fought hard for working people and delivered astonishing results for all Americans.â
âHe will go down in history as one of the most impactful and selfless presidents,â said Newsom, who was one of the most prominent Biden surrogates. Newsom has also been floated as a possible Democratic presidential contender.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, another prominent Democrat talked about as a future national candidate, called Biden a âgreat public servantâ in a post to X.
âMy job in this election will remain the same: doing everything I can to elect Democrats and stop Donald Trump, a convicted felon whose agenda of raising familiesâ costs, banning abortion nationwide, and abusing the power of the White House to settle his own scores is completely wrong for Michigan,â Whitmer wrote.
The president’s granddaughter Naomi Biden said in a post that she was ânothing but proud today of my Pop,â adding that he has âserved our country with every bit of his soul and with unmatched distinction.â First lady Jill Biden posted her husbandâs statement to X with a heart emoji.
Across the aisle, Republicans slammed the move and many called on him to resign his office, days after the completion of a Republican National Convention where speaker after speaker slammed the Biden-Harris ticket.
“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for president, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately,â said House Speaker Mike Johnson.
In a brief phone interview with NBC News, Trump reacted to Biden’s decision, calling the president “the worst president in the history of the United States by far.”
When asked whether he was surprised by Biden’s decision, Trump said that Biden “should never have been there in the first place.”
âHe should have stayed in his basement,” Trump said.
In a fundraising email, Trumpâs campaign said that Biden âquit the race in complete disgrace.â
An unprecedented decision
Bidenâs decision to exit the race less than a month before his partyâs convention and a few months before voters head to the polls is unprecedented in the modern political era. The last sitting president to abandon a re-election bid was Lyndon Johnson, whose expansion of the Vietnam War in the 1960s split the Democratic Party. But Johnsonâs announcement came in March 1968 â eight months before that election.
âWeâre in uncharted waters,â said Barbara Perry, a presidential studies professor at the University of Virginiaâs Miller Center. âNo president has dropped out or died this close to the convention.â
Replacing Biden atop the Democratic ticket is likely to set off internal Democratic tremors as ambitious officials maneuver to become his successor. Factions have already formed around Harris, Whitmer and Newsom.
Harris would seem to be the heir apparent. She broke a barrier as the first female vice president. A woman of color, she enjoys strong support among African Americans, a loyal piece of the Democratic coalition. Overall, though, Harrisâ approval rating stood at only 32% in an NBC News poll released earlier this month.