July 21, 2024 | What A Day Newsletter

What A Day: Biden Bows Out

FILE - President Joe Biden walks out of the room after speaking from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Aug. 24, 2021. Biden dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House on Sunday, July 21, ending his bid for reelection following a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised doubts about his fitness for office just four months before the election. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

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BREAKING NEWS

President Biden will drop his campaign for president, he announced on Instagram Sunday, in a stunning development that turns the 2024 race on its head. Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place at the top of the Democratic ticket.

President Biden’s decision follows weeks of rising pressure and controversy, including backroom maneuvering from top Democrats and defections by members of Congress and big donors. Biden and his top campaign aides insisted until the final moments that he intended to stay in the race. But in the end, he bowed out with a short, decisive post on social media. “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” 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.” Biden plans to speak to the nation about his decision “later this week in more detail,” he wrote.

Biden followed up that message, moments later, with another throwing his weight behind Vice President Kamala Harris. “My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,” he wrote. “And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”

Biden’s support makes Harris the obvious heir apparent. Yet the vice president could still potentially face Democratic challengers in an unprecedented and dynamic situation.

Some potential alternatives include Governors Josh Shapiro (D-PA), Gavin Newsom (D-CA), Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and JB Pritzker (D-IL). Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, have also been raised as possibilities. But all of this is wholly uncharted territory for the Dems and the country, so further plot twists, or the emergence of a dark horse candidate, simply cannot be dismissed as possibilities. A sitting president has never backed out this late in the race — and there’s simply no telling how the next few weeks, and months, will go.

Whoever clinches the nomination will have just 75 days to convince Americans to send them to the White House once the ticket is finalized. Biden’s stunning decision throws the 2024 race into a new kind of chaos just days after Republicans officially sealed disgraced former President Trump as their nominee at the Republican National Convention.

The Democratic National Convention is currently scheduled to take place Aug. 19-22 in Chicago, IL.