In a sudden about-face, President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he would not accept the Democrat nomination for president and threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place as the Democrat nominee.
Biden, who has been at his beach house in Delaware since July 17 recovering from COVID, announced his withdrawal from the 2024 race, not in a televised address but on social media, posting a letter on X Sunday afternoon.
In his letter, the president boasted that his administration “made great progress” and said serving as president was “the greatest honor of my life.” He said while he intended to run for reelection, he decided that it was in the Democrat Party’s “best interest” for him to “stand down” and focus on “fulfilling my duties as President” for the remainder of his term.
In a subsequent post on X, Biden reiterated that he decided not to accept the nomination and offered his “full support and endorsement” of Vice President Harris as the party’s nominee in 2024. He called for the party to unite behind Harris to “beat Trump” in November.
In a statement posted on X, Vice President Harris thanked President Biden for his leadership and “service to our country” and said she was “honored” to have his endorsement. She vowed to earn the nomination from the Democrat Party and said she would unite the country “to defeat Donald Trump.”
Harris described Biden’s 50 years in Washington as a “remarkable legacy of accomplishment” and claimed that in just three-and-a-half years Biden had surpassed the legacy of many two-term presidents.
She described Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race as a “selfless and patriotic act,” and claimed that Biden had put the country and the American people “above everything else.”
The news of Biden’s sudden about-face came as a shock to White House aides.
Sources said his staff only learned of his decision to drop out just moments before his letter was posted on X. Up until then, his staff was still assuring reporters that the president intended to stay in the race.
