Joe Biden withdraws from U.S. presidential race

U.S. President Joe Biden has abandoned his re-election campaign with only 107 days until voters choose their next president, leaving Democrats, some of whom had called for his exit, just a few weeks to pick a new candidate as they seek to keep a resurgent Donald Trump from taking back the White House.

Mr. Biden said he would step aside “in the best interest of my party and the country,” and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris to take the party’s nomination in his stead. He said he would continue serving as President for the remainder of his term, which ends in January.

The President’s decision stamps an end date on his long political career, which began with his first local election win in 1970. The 81-year-old was praised as a patriot by his Democratic peers for leaving the race to make way for a younger contender. He promised to say more later this week about his reasons for leaving.

Questions about Mr. Biden’s mental fitness have grown more acute since his stumbling debate performance last month suggested he is beginning to succumb to the frailties of old age. In the weeks that followed, calls for him to cede his position as presumptive Democratic nominee grew more insistent from within party ranks, as congressional leaders, prominent fundraisers and even close allies made public their concern about the viability of his candidacy.

His decision on Sunday marks a stunning personal reversal. Until the moment he announced that he would drop out through a statement posted to social media, Mr. Biden and his campaign insisted that he alone was best suited to vanquish Mr. Trump, as he did in 2020.

There is no modern American precedent for a party’s chosen leader voluntarily leaving the race at such a late moment, after the conclusion of primary elections in which voters overwhelmingly chose Mr. Biden as their candidate.

It brings yet another major jolt to a presidential race already shaken by this month’s assassination attempt on Mr. Trump, the Republican candidate, and his criminal conviction in May.

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Mr. Trump issued a new fundraising appeal within minutes of his rival’s announcement, saying Mr. Biden “just quit the race in COMPLETE DISGRACE!” Soon after, he began selling his trademark red Make America Great Again hats in white, saying they were to commemorate Mr. Biden’s departure. Mr. Trump, who has for months enjoyed a slim lead in polls, must now remake his own campaign against a new and, for now, unknown opponent.

For Democrats, meanwhile, Mr. Biden’s departure abruptly plunges the party into a moment of uncertainty just one month before it expects to crown its nominee at a convention in Chicago.

His withdrawal frees delegates to that convention from their commitment to any candidate, placing the future of the party – and perhaps the country – in their hands, although Mr. Biden is likely to maintain considerable moral suasion, giving Ms. Harris an edge.

It is unclear whether there will be a competition for the nomination; as of Sunday evening no other Democrats had said they would vie for the spot, and some possible contenders, including California Governor Gavin Newsom and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, had endorsed Ms. Harris.

The intricacies of the selection process will almost certainly need to be reformulated for the exceptional new circumstances. Another complication: The party’s chosen nominee will themselves have to select a running mate, creating the potential for a disruptive secondary contest.

At the same time, some Democratic Party elders and major donors moved quickly to support Ms. Harris, hoping to prevent a period of fractious infighting less than four months from this year’s election.

Ms. Harris is a former California prosecutor and attorney-general who as Vice-President drew criticism for failing to stem large numbers of illegal migrants, but plaudits for her advocacy on maintaining legalized access to abortion, a key Democratic campaign plank. On Sunday, she pledged to “earn and win” the party’s support, saying she would “do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party – and unite our nation – to defeat Donald Trump” and his “extreme” agenda.

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Former president Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, said in a joint statement that they support Ms. Harris as the party’s candidate. They were joined by influential wings of the Democratic Party, including its Congressional Progressive Caucus and Black Caucus.

Reid Hoffman, a major Democratic donor, also said he would support Ms. Harris. “It’s time for us to unite,” Mr. Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, said in a statement. The chairs of Democratic state party organizations across the country gave their “full support” to Ms. Harris, sources familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency.

Other notable Democrats, however, did not immediately support Ms. Harris, including former president Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Some Democrats believe the party would be best served by a competitive process, even if brief, to evaluate who will be better positioned to challenge Mr. Trump, who boasts formidable campaign skills and growing support from groups of voters that have traditionally voted Democratic, including Black, Hispanic and young Americans.

Ms. Harris, who is of Black and South Asian descent, became a political pioneer as the first woman to become vice-president. If elected, she would be the first woman to become president.

But she has struggled in other campaigns, including her failed 2020 attempt to become the Democratic presidential nominee, when she dropped out more than two months before the first primary vote took place.

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“Running in a primary campaign is difficult enough and that didn’t go especially well for her. But a one-on-one general-election campaign against someone like Trump is an immense challenge,” said Dan Schnur, a long-time California political strategist.

“The main reason the Democrats might benefit from even an abbreviated competitive process is to test the mettle of the candidates, Harris included, to see who might be best prepared for that challenge.”

Failing to hold a competitive process may also provide Republicans new grounds for political attack.

“I’m worried about the consequences to our democracy if the Democrats decide not to open up the nomination process,” said Frank Luntz, the prominent Republican pollster and strategist. “Trump will claim it’s a rigged nomination and independent voters already think the elites in Washington have too much power.”

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Democrats, however, may not have much choice. Reopening a primary selection process would not only encounter daunting logistical hurdles, it would violate party rules and the law in some states, said Sandy Maisel, a government professor emeritus at Colby College in Waterville, Me.

Any challenger “would have to be so self-assured that they had a better chance at beating Trump than Harris did – and that they could beat Harris – that they would risk their entire political career for that.”

Ms. Harris, as a lawyer, is seen as capable of more sharply parrying Mr. Trump’s verbal blows than Mr. Biden, although she may struggle to match Mr. Biden’s skill in speaking to independent voters.

She possesses other advantages, however, including access to the powerful campaign organization already built for Mr. Biden, and preferential access to the funds it has raised.

The “likely outcome is there will be a general rallying round Harris, just because there’s no obvious alternative that wouldn’t tear the party apart,” said Gary Jacobson, an emeritus scholar at University of California San Diego who has written extensively on U.S. politics.

Democrats, too, hope Mr. Biden’s departure will allow them to revive a campaign they intended to cast as a referendum on Mr. Trump. That strategy had splintered as questions about Mr. Biden’s age and mental acuity rose to the fore.

“All of us want to get back on offence. I am so tired of playing defence in this race and watching the Republicans gloat,” said Mike Nellis, a prominent Democratic technologist and fundraiser who is founder of digital marketing agency Authentic.

“Every Democratic activist I talk to is so tired of fighting with each other.”