The Making of the President 2024: Joe Biden Withdraws from the Contest
On July 21, 2024, incumbent President Joe Biden, the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for re-election as President of the United States, announced his withdrawal as a candidate for President in 2024 and endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement.
Biden had previously announced that he would run for re-election in the 2024 presidential election on April 25, 2023, and that Harris would be his running mate. In the party's 2024 presidential primaries and caucuses, Biden won an overwhelming majority of the delegates up for grabs in the contests, and he was already considered the presumptive nominee even before the primaries were over. But there was an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with Biden's candidacy. His critics cited concerns about his age, health, and mental acuity and many questioned his fitness for the office and his ability to carry out a second term.
These concerns were brought into the open and were greatly increased after watching Biden's performance in a debate he had with Republican candidate Donald Trump on June 27, 2024. Biden's performance was severely criticized. Commentators pointed out how Biden frequently lost his train of thought, how he gave meandering answers, how he spoke with a hoarse voice, and how he failed to recall statistics. On several occasions the answers he gave made no sense.
As a result, Biden faced calls to withdraw from the race. These came from fellow Democrats, from the editorial boards of major news outlets, and even from celebrities who were supporters of the Democratic Party. By July 19, 2024, more than 30 senior Democrats had called for him to withdraw from the race.
Initially, Biden repeatedly insisted for weeks after the debate that he would remain a candidate, despite the many calls for him to withdraw. However, on July 21, 2024, he withdrew his candidacy, doing so in a signed letter posted on his personal account on the social media platform X. Biden wrote that this was "in the best interest of my party and the country" for him to withdraw his candidacy, but he stated that he would continue serving as president until the conclusion of his term. Biden became the first incumbent president since 1968 to withdraw from a reelection race and the only one to withdraw after already winning enough votes for the nomination in the primaries and caucuses.
During the 2020 Presidential election, Biden described himself as a 'bridge' candidate to a new generation of leadership, which many interpreted as a pledge to serve only one term as President. But Biden soon dispelled these suggestions and made it clear that he planned to run for re-election. Biden was 78 years old when he was inaugurated as President, making him the oldest person to ever serve as President. Health concerns soon emerged during his presidency, primarily about his age and ability to carry out a second term.
In July 2024, The New York Times reported that Kevin Cannard, a neurologist from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, had attended to the white hose at least eight times in the previous eight months. Cannard specializes in movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease. The White House downplayed this speculation, stating that Cannard has also visited the White House frequently when Barack Obama was President.
On April 25, 2023, Biden officially confirmed he would run for reelection as president and that Vice-President Kamala Harris would once again be his running mate. On the day of his announcement, a Gallup poll found that Biden's approval rating was 37%, with most of those surveyed citing the economy as their biggest concern.
Biden made protecting American democracy a central focus of his campaign, as well as restoring the federal right to abortion following the Supreme Court's overturning the landmark decision of Roe v. Wade, He also made strengthening U.S. alliances a key goal of his foreign policy and promised to continue supporting Ukraine and Israel in their respective conflicts.
Things came to a boil when Biden and Trump faced each other in a televised debate on June 27, 2024. Biden had a faltering appearance and spoke with a hoarse voice. He failed to recall statistics or coherently express his opinion on several occasions. Trump was declared the winner of the debate by the vast majority of media outlets. Perhaps the LA Times put it best when they said that while Trump did not win the debate, Biden "clearly lost." Polling also indicated the majority of the public believed Trump won the debate. Following Biden's performance at the debate, many Democrats called for him to withdraw from the race.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Heffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer met with Biden on July 12 and 13, respectively, and had expressed concerns to Biden about Democratic losses in Congress. Biden was also told that donors were withholding donations to his campaign.
On July 17, 2024, Biden tested positive for COVID-19, showing mild symptoms, including a cough and runny nose. In phone conversations, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi told Biden she was pessimistic about his candidacy. On July 20, Biden began planning a possible exit from the race with close aides.
On July 21, Biden's official account on X posted a letter announcing his withdrawal. In the letter, he wrote:
"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."
Later the same day, another post from the same account endorsed Kamala Harris, the vice president since 2021, as his replacement in the presidential race.
On July 24, 2024, in his first appearance since withdrawing from the presidential race, President Biden explained his decision. Speaking from the Oval Office, he gave his reason for withdrawing from the race as being for the "defense of democracy." He added, "America's going to have to choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate, between unity and division."
Biden's pledged delegates were released by his resignation from the race. In a survey of delegates conducted by the Associated Press on July 22, 2024, Harris became the presumptive nominee after receiving pledges from more than half of the delegates. On August 6, Harris was officially certified as the Democratic presidential nominee after securing 99% of delegates voting in a virtual roll call vote.
Biden was praised for putting his party and his country ahead of his own persoal success. He was praised for his unselfish decision by leaders in the Democratic Party, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton.
As expected, the response from Donald Trump was less complimentary. Trump released a statement on his social media platform Truth Social in which he said that Biden "was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve." He called him "the worst president, by far, in the history of our nation." Trump complained in a July 21 Truth Social post and requested that the Republican Party should be reimbursed for the money they spent campaigning against Biden and he called Biden's removal from the race as a coup by the Democratic Party.