President Biden announced Sunday that he will step aside as the Democratic presidential nominee, ending weeks of hand-wringing among party leaders who urged him to leave the race after a disastrous debate performance left many Democrats fearing he was too old for office and unable to defeat former President Trump.
Biden’s decision opens a path for Vice President Kamala Harris and other possible replacement candidates, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, to hastily mount a campaign for the nomination ahead of the Democratic National Convention in mid-August.
“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,” Biden said in statement. He will address the nation later in the week, he said.
He thanked those who worked on the campaign and Harris for being “an extradorinary partner in all this work,” but he did not endorse her to replace him on the ticket.
A Harris-Trump contest would present a stark contrast between Harris — 59, Black, Asian and the first woman to serve as vice president — against the 78-year-old Trump, a convicted felon whose presidency and campaign have been laced with racist and misogynistic underpinnings. Trump would become the oldest president in office by the end of his term. Harris would be the first woman president.
The groundwork for a last-minute presidential nominee switch-up began in June, when the 81-year-old Biden appeared weak and flustered in a debate against Trump, sending a jolt of panic among Democrats.
Overnight, the president’s age and mental acuity — which polls show have long been a top concern for voters — burst into the mainstream conversation among political punditry.
The first sitting Democratic member of Congress to call for Biden to withdraw was Lloyd Doggett of Texas, whose comments on July 2 presaged what other lawmakers and party leaders would say about Biden and the election. Doggett praised Biden’s lengthy service to the country and touted his record, but turning to the debate, said, “Instead of reassuring voters, the President failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s lies.”
Biden, at least initially, remained undaunted.
“I am running and gonna win again,” Biden said July 5 at a rally with supporters in Madison, Wis. “They’re trying to push me out of the race. Well let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race. I’ll beat Donald Trump.”
Later that day, Biden’s interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos did little to repair the damage from the debate. At times, Biden faltered, sidestepped questions and once again failed to reassure supporters that he was equipped to lead the country.
The ABC interview came after polls showing support for the president eroding.
As weeks wore on, a trickle of calls for the president to step aside grew into a steady stream — including from top leaders in his own party.
Actor George Clooney, a major Democratic donor and fundraiser, said July 10 that Democrats are “not going to win in November with this president.” Clooney spelled out his reasoning in an op-ed for the New York Times under the headline “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.”
On July 17, Rep. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank became the most prominent Democrat in Congress up to that point to call on Biden to make way for a new candidate.
“A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November,” Schiff said.
Schiff’s statement came the same day a poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reported that nearly two-thirds of Democrats surveyed said Biden should withdraw from the race.
Biden’s decision to withdraw fundamentally reshapes the 2024 campaign for both Democrats and Republicans, and could provide a welcome boost for Democrats who’ve faced flagging support from a relatively apathetic electorate.
Polls have repeatedly shown that many Americans did not welcome a repeat of 2020’s Biden-Trump contest. Biden in particular struggled to surmount voters’ concerns that he would be fit to govern the country well into his 80s.
Biden also faced backlash, particularly from young voters and voters of color, for his handling of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Though Biden easily won every Democratic primary so far, thousands of disgruntled Americans voted “uncommitted” in several states, in an effort by pro-Palestinian protesters to register their discontent over his support of Israel.
The president’s single term in office will cap a government career that began over 50 years ago, when Biden was elected to a Delaware County Council seat in his home state of Pennsylvania. He represented Delaware in the Senate 36 years, cultivating close political relationships with a broad spectrum of Republican and Democratic Senate colleagues. He also led the influential Senate Judiciary Committee, which confirmed Justice Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court despite a widely publicized controversy involving sexual harassment allegations.
During his tenure as senator, Biden long harbored presidential aspirations, running for the highest office in 1988 and again in 2008 before accepting former President Obama’s invitation to serve as vice president.
After two terms as second-in-command, Biden once again launched his own presidential bid in 2020, surging from the middle of the pack of Democratic candidates to clinch the nomination. The 2020 election results, taking place amid the historic COVID-19 pandemic, came down to razor-thin margins in a handful of key swing states, with the final count drawing out for several days.
Even before he took office, Biden faced unprecedented challenges to his presidency when a group of pro-Trump rioters broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6, the day Congress was scheduled to certify the election results.
Biden presided over a sharply divided Congress, but pushed through pandemic relief stimulus packages and signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act — to date the nation’s largest set of initiatives to combat climate change. He also led a chaotic removal of American troops from Afghanistan that drew criticism from many in his own party.
Biden’s decision to step aside echoed the actions 56 years earlier of another Democratic president who held office during a turbulent time.
Speaking from the White House on March 31, 1968, President Johnson said he had to devote himself to the Vietnam War and divisive domestic issues. “Accordingly,” he said, “I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”
Doggett alluded to Johnson, a fellow Texan, when he urged Biden to make way for new leadership for the good of the country: “Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw. President Biden should do the same.”
This article will be updated.