By Agency Report
US President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he was dropping out of his reelection battle with Donald Trump, in a historic move that plunges the already turbulent 2024 White House race into uncharted territory.
However, Biden has endorsed Kamala Harris, the country’s Vice President as his preferred presidential nominee for his Democratic Party.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve you as president,” the 81-year-old Democrat said in a letter in X, posted while he was recovering from COVID at his beach house in Delaware.
“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 focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
Read too: Biden ‘receptive’ to giving up 2024 re-election run
He said over the past three and a half years, America had made great progress as a Nation, saying today, America has the strongest economy in the world.
“We’ve made historic investments in rebuilding our Nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans, We’ve provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances, Passed the first gun safety law in 30 years.
“Appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court. And passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world. America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today,” he said.
Biden said he knew none of this could have been done without the American people, saying “together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We’ve protected and preserved our Democracy. And we’ve revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.”
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And 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.
Also read: Presidential debate: Democrats panicked over Biden’s sloppy performance
“I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can’t do — when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America,” he said.
Biden endorses Kamala
Biden announced on his official X page on Sunday, shortly after he withdrew from the United States November presidential election.
He had said it was in the best interest of his party and the country to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling his duties as President for the remainder of his term.
Also read: ‘I’m running…’ Biden defiantly declares despite low rating
“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 decision I’ve made.
“Today 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. Let’s do this,” he added.
The Democratic Party is now plunged into chaos and needs to find a new candidate by November’s election, with Vice President Kamala Harris the frontrunner.
Biden bowed out after weeks of pressure that began with a disastrous debate performance that raised fears over his health.
The stunning move makes Biden the first president in US history to pull out so late in an election race, and the first to bow out because of concerns over his mental acuity and health.
Biden spent more than three weeks resisting calls to step down following the shock of the June 27 debate, at one point insisting that only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to back out.
In a bid to show he was up to the job, he gave a number of interviews and what was billed as a “big boy” press conference in which he took numerous questions, but made further gaffes including calling Harris “Vice President Trump.”
A tide of voices within his own party calling on him to go, starting with donor and actor George Clooney and ending with former president Barack Obama, sealed his fate.
The end finally came shortly after Biden had been diagnosed with COVID-19, forcing him off the campaign trail and into isolation.
Biden’s decision to pull out also caps a tense and chaotic period in the US election, with Trump having survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally on July 13.
He joins a small club of US presidents who have decided to throw in the towel after just one term, with the last being Lyndon Johnson in 1968 — a year also marked by political turmoil and violence.
Johnson’s replacement as nominee, then-vice president Hubert Humphrey, went on to lose heavily to Richard Nixon.
While Harris struggled to make an impact in her first years in the White House, she has emerged in the last year as a strong performer on the campaign trail on key messages such as abortion rights.
The former prosecutor has also made much of her life story as the first woman in US history to hold the vice presidency, as well as the first person of Black and South Asian origin.
Harris is now set to be nominated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19 in what promises to be a dramatic moment — and a heartrending one for Biden.
Biden took office in January 2021 pledging to heal the “soul of America” after four turbulent years under Trump and the shock of the January 6, 2021 Capitol assault by his supporters.
Overcoming a reputation for verbal flubs, Barack Obama’s former vice president pushed through a massive Covid recovery plan and a green industry scheme.
US allies welcomed his pledge that “America is back” following Trump’s trampling on international alliances, and his strong support for Ukraine as it battled Russia’s 2022 invasion.
But he faced criticism over the catastrophic US withdrawal from Afghanistan and inflation that meant overstretched Americans ignored otherwise positive economic numbers.
Behind it all were the ongoing concerns about his age with a series of senior moments, including tripping up the stairs to Air Force One and falling off his bike, contributing to the doddery image played up by Republicans.
Donald Trump reacts
Former U.S. President, Donald Trump has reacted to President Joe Biden’s decision to quit the presidential race.
Trump told CNN in a phone call minutes after Biden announced his exit from the 2024 presidential race that the president would go down as the worst in the history of America.
He said Biden would “down as the single worst president by far in the history of our country.”
Trump said he thought Vice President Kamala Harris would be easier to defeat than Biden would have been.
