July 22, 2024

Joe Biden quits the presidential race, endorses Kamala Harris

by Jefferson He

in Miami, Florida

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June 28, 2024. President Joe Biden at a campaign in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Picture by: Kasey Rollins | Biden for President | Flickr

Four months before the election and almost a month after a disappointing performance during a debate, President Joe Biden withdrew from the race for the second term in the White House and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

“My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote on Sunday on X, soon after he released an official letter to the members of the Democratic Party.

He added: “I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump.”

My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best… pic.twitter.com/x8DnvuImJV

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024

Calls for Biden to quit have been growing since the presidential debate against Donald J. Trump in June, with many high-profile Democrats pressuring him not to seek reelection.

During the debate, held on June 26 in Atlanta, Biden appeared incoherent, lost track of thoughts, and stumbled to the degree that Trump attacked by saying: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence; I don’t think he knows what he said either.”

Several days later, Senator Peter Welsh (Democrat of Vermont) wrote in The Washington Post: “We cannot unsee President Biden’s disastrous debate performance. We cannot ignore or dismiss the valid questions raised since that night. … For the good of the country, I’m calling on President Biden to withdraw from the race.” He was the first Senator to openly call for Biden to quit.

On the same day, famous actor George Clooney, who is also a donor and fund-raising leader for the Democrats, wrote in The New York Times:

It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.

The next day, calls for Biden to quit only intensified. It was after the incumbent president messed up during the NATO Summit and mistakenly introduced Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, as “President Putin”, and then Kamala Harris, the Vice President, as “Vice President Trump”.

Since then, Biden’s campaign has been almost entirely focused on defending his place on the ticket, not challenging Donald Trump − which was increasingly visible in the polls.

Even before the NATO Summit, a poll (Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos) showed that 67% of American adults believe Biden should quit the race. By mid-July, a survey from The Times/SAY24 found Biden was trailing Trump in the swing states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin). Following the assassination attempt on Trump and a successful convention in Milwaukee, a group of new states was added to the list of ‘battleground states.’

Read also:

Will Biden go bye-then? Who would step in if he drops out?

by Noah Saphier

Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race came with his endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris to be the next nominee for the Democrats.

Harris confirmed that she intends to run. The Democrats, however, have until their convention in Chicago, Illinois, scheduled for August 19-22, to finally confirm who will be on their ticket for the November elections.

The first comments underline that Biden’s decision has no precedent, and that the former President Barack Obama did not endorse Kamala Harris.

“We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead. But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.

“I believe that Joe Biden’s vision of a generous, prosperous, and united America that provides opportunity for everyone will be on full display at the Democratic Convention in August.” he wrote in a statement released after Biden’s decision.

Written by:

Jefferson He

Editor-in-chief

London, United Kingdom

Born in 2007 in Hong Kong, Jefferson studies in Reading, England and plans to attend a university in the United Kingdom.

Jefferson joined Harbingers’ Magazine in 2023 — first as a contributor, but quickly became the UK Correspondent. In 2024, he took over as the editor-in-chief and acting editor of the Politics section.

Additionally, Jefferson coordinates the Harbingerettes project in Nepal, where a group of 10 students has journalism-themed lessons in English. He spends some of his holiday reporting on the development of LGBT+ rights in Asia (one of his articles was published by The Diplomat).

He is interested in philosophy, journalism, sports, religious studies, and ethics. In his free time, Jefferson – who describes himself as “young, small and smart” – watches movies, enjoys gardening and plays sports. He speaks English, Mandarin and Cantonese.

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