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President Biden is ending his run for a second term in office, a bombshell decision just 15 weeks before Election Day, bowing to pressure from his party after a disastrous debate at the end of June where he seemed to lose his train of thought.
For Biden, 81, the June 27 debate hardened a narrative that he was too old for another four years in the job. He insisted for three weeks that he would fight to make a comeback. But on Sunday he said he had changed his mind.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
"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," he wrote in a letter addressed to "my fellow Americans" posted on social media.
He said he would speak to the nation later this week in more detail about his decision and thanked his supporters and Vice President Harris.
His decision comes just a month ahead the party’s convention. It’s now unclear who will lead Democrats into the Nov. 5 election — and how the party can get organized on time.
Not since March 1968 has an incumbent U.S. president opted out of running for a second term — when President Lyndon B. Johnson, under pressure over the Vietnam War, dropped out of the presidential race during a live television address.
A fumbled debate touched off Democratic panic
Polls have long shown that most voters disapproved of Biden's performance and thought he was too old for the job. But Biden’s campaign team had argued that support would pick up once voters had the chance to think about former President Donald Trump’s positions on abortion rights and his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
Biden’s campaign thought the debate against Trump would kickstart this contrast. Scheduled months earlier than usual and with new rules, including no live audience and muted candidate microphones unless directed to speak, the debate was largely held on Biden’s terms.
The goal was to send a clear message to Biden’s doubters: that he could swat away concerns about his age by showing off his first-term record and decades-long political tenure.
Instead, the president spoke with a noticeably raspy voice, seemed overwhelmed at times, and failed to make concise and clear points on a number of issues key to his reelection platform, notably protecting abortion access.
The performance sent Democrats into a panic, and prompted a steady drip of private and public calls for Biden to step back from the campaign and make way for a new candidate.
Biden's damage control tour
Biden was defiant, saying his health was fine, and arguing that he was the most experienced and best-placed candidate to beat Trump.
He told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that only the "Lord Almighty" could make him drop out of the race, and privately met with Democratic lawmakers, governors, and donors to make his case.
Biden publicly railed against the "elites" in his party. "I don't care what those 'big names' think. They were wrong in 2020, they were wrong in 2022 about the red wave. They're wrong in 2024," Biden said on MSNBC's Morning Joe on July 8.
"Go ahead. Announce for president. Challenge me at the convention," he said.
Biden did a series of campaign stops and speeches in key states, giving fiery speeches to try to demonstrate that he "just had a bad night" at the debate. He gave a lengthy solo press conference, and sat for televised interviews.
He wheeled out new attack lines on Trump in a retooled stump speech — only to have to immediately scale back his rhetoric in the wake of an assassination attempt on Trump. As Republicans gathered at their national convention, he tried to campaign in Nevada to create some counterprogramming — then got COVID, sending him into isolation in Delaware.
"We can't catch a break," a Biden adviser told NPR on the day that Trump gave his acceptance speech at the Republican convention.
Party leaders conveyed concern that Biden would lose to Trump, and weigh on tough Senate and House races. Rep. Jamie Raskin told him he was like Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez, who in 2003, stayed in the game too long.
“There is no shame in taking a well-deserved bow to the overflowing appreciation of the crowd when your arm is tired out, and there is real danger for the team in ignoring the statistics," Raskin warned.
Now, the race begins to replace Biden on the ticket
Back in 2020, when Biden was running to become the Democratic presidential candidate, he had called himself a "bridge" to younger stars in his party as he campaigned with Harris, Whitmer and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.
"There's an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country," he said.
In the waning days of his campaign, Biden was asked why he hadn't taken the opportunity to pass the torch earlier.
"What changed was the gravity of the situation I inherited in terms of the economy, our foreign policy, and domestic division," Biden said.
"I realized ... my long time in the Senate had equipped me to have the wisdom to know how to deal with the Congress to get things done," he said. "And I want to finish it -- to get that finished."
But instead, Democrats are now under intense pressure to choose an alternate candidate in an extremely compressed time period that one Biden adviser compared to the "Hunger Games."
"What campaign team is going to rise from the ashes?" the adviser asked. “It's gonna be ugly. It's gonna be dirty. It's gonna be messy.”
Vice President Harris, 59, is expected to be a frontrunner. Democratic governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gavin Newsom of California, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Wes Moore of Maryland are also seen as leaders in the party. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear's reelection win in his red state could add his name to the mix.
NPR political reporter Elena Moore contributed to this report.
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