From Reuters:
“Biden
drops re-election bid, does not endorse Harris as candidate”
U.S. President
Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign on Sunday after fellow Democrats lost
faith in his mental acuity and ability to beat Donald Trump, but did not
immediately endorse Vice President Kamal Harris to replace him as candidate. Biden,
81, in a post on X, said he will remain in his role as president and
commander-in-chief until his term ends in January 2025 and will address the
nation this week.
"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," Biden wrote.
His move could
clear the way for Harris to run at the top of the ticket, the first Black woman
to do so in the country's history. But Biden did not mention her in his
announcement. It was unclear whether other senior Democrats would challenge
Harris for the party's nomination, who was widely seen as the pick for many
party officials - or whether the party itself would choose to open the field
for nominations.
Biden's
announcement follows a wave of public and private pressure from Democratic
lawmakers and party officials to quit the race after his shockingly poor
performance in a June 27 televised debate last month against Republican rival
Trump, 78. Biden's failure at times to complete clear sentences took the public
spotlight away from Trump's performance, in which he made a string of false
statements, and trained it instead on questions surrounding Biden's fitness for
another 4-year term. Days later he raised fresh concerns in an interview,
shrugging off Democrats' worries and a widening gap in opinion polls, and
saying he would be fine losing to Trump if he knew he'd "gave it my
all." His gaffes at a NATO summit - invoking Russian President Vladimir
Putin's name when he meant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and calling
Harris "Vice President Trump" -further stoked anxieties. Only four
days before Sunday's announcement, Biden was diagnosed with COVID-19 for a
third time, forcing him to cut short a campaign trip to Las Vegas. More than
one in 10 congressional Democrats had called publicly for him to quit the race.
Biden's
historic move -- the first sitting president to give up his party's nomination
for re-election since President Lyndon Johnson in March 1968 -- leaves his
replacement with less than four months to wage a campaign.
^ Now Trump
needs to drop out of the race. ^
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