President Joe Biden is dropping out of the Presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris following weeks of building pressure on him to step aside for a younger candidate that came after a poor performance in the first debate against former President Donald Trump enflamed preexisting concerns about his age and mental fitness to serve and hurt his standing among voters in a closely divided race.
He had resisted pressure for weeks despite dozens of Democratic lawmakers, donors and other party figures calling on him to drop out and maintained his position that only he could defeat trump in the Nov. 5 Election.
He reversed that position on Sunday and dropped out of the race without offering much explanation beyond it “being in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down.”
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president,” he said in a statement. “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.”
He said he will speak to the country later this week to provide more detail about his decision. Biden will serve out the remainder of his term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2025.
About 30 minutes after announcing his decision, he made another post on social media endorsing harris to be the democratic nominee instead of him.
“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination. Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead. I will do everything in my power to unite the democratic party and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme project 2025 agenda, we have 107 days until election day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.”