Biden ends 2024 reelection bid, endorses Vice President Kamala Harris

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House on Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take over as his party's nominee.

Biden is 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.

The political earthquake is hitting just weeks before Democrats head to Chicago for what will be a national nominating convention sailing through uncharted waters, even with Biden's endorsement of Harris.

Biden's decision comes after escalating pressure from Biden's Democratic allies to step aside following the June 27 debate, in which the 81-year-old president trailed off, often gave nonsensical answers and failed to call out the former president's many falsehoods.

Biden plans to serve out the remainder of his term in office, which ends at noon on Jan. 20, 2025.

"It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. 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 wrote in a letter posted to his X account.

Harris has Biden’s ‘full support’

Biden's endorsement of Harris came not long after in a follow-up post.

"My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made," Biden wrote. "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, who remains at his Delaware beach house after being diagnosed with COVID-19 last week, said he would address the nation later this week to provide "detail" about his decision.

Former President Barack Obama issued a statement praising Biden, who served as his vice president for eight years.

"Joe Biden has been one of America’s most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me. Today, we’ve also been reminded — again — that he’s a patriot of the highest order."

Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, who also had sought the Democratic nomination in 2020, then accepted a spot in Biden's cabinet, issued a statment that Biden "has earned his place among the best and most consequential presidents in American history. I am so proud to serve under his leadership, and thankful for his unwavering focus on what is best for our country."

The announcement is the latest jolt to a campaign for the White House that both political parties see as the most consequential election in generations, coming just days after the attempted assassination of Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.

Could this change Chicago convention?

The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to be held Aug. 19-22 in Chicago, but the party had announced that it would hold a virtual roll call to formally nominate Biden before in-person proceedings begin.

The date for the roll call hasn't been set, and it's unlikely that will happen if the field is seen as wide open. Harris could still have competition from others looking to replace Biden. But that could create a scenario in which she and others end up lobbying individual state delegations at the convention for their support.

A party's presumptive presidential nominee has never stepped out of the race so close to the election. The closest parallel would be President Lyndon Johnson who, besieged by the Vietnam War, announced in March 1968 that he would not seek another term.

Now, Democrats have to urgently try to bring coherence to the nominating process in a matter of weeks and persuade voters in a stunningly short amount of time that their nominee can handle the job and beat Trump. And for his part, Trump must shift his focus to a new opponent after years of training his attention on Biden.

Evan Vucci/Associated Press

Several top Democrats soon posted statements of support for Harris to lead the ticket, including former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, the party's 2016 presidential nominee who also served in the Senate and as secretary of state.

The decision marks a swift and stunning end to Biden's 52 years in electoral politics, as donors, lawmakers and even aides expressed to him their doubts that he could convince voters that he could plausibly handle the job for another four years.

Biden won the vast majority of delegates and every nominating contest but one, which would have made his nomination a formality. Now that he has dropped out, those delegates will be free to support another candidate.

Harris, 59, is the only candidate who can directly tap into the Biden campaign's war chest, according to federal campaign finance rules.

Reaction from Illinois

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, often mentioned as a potential candidate for president or vice president, praised Biden in a statement Sunday afternoon.

The president "has dedicated his life in service to this nation, and its citizens are all the better for it. His is a storied political career culminating in one of the most accomplished and effective presidencies of our lifetime," Pritzker wrote on X.

"As we extend our gratitude to President Biden and reflect on his many accomplishments, we must not ignore the threat posted by Donald Trump's potential return to the White House."

U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, among the first Illinois Democrats to urge Biden to step aside, praised the president's accomplishments in a statement issued Sunday and also threw his support to Harris.

"Our country is better and our future is brighter due to his leadership," Schneider said. "Joe Biden has secured his legacy as one of the greatest presidents in our history. It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve in Congress during his presidency. Now, we must come together, build on the legacy of the Biden administration and show voters that Democrats up and down the ballot are improving the lives of all Americans."
Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman from Illinois turned independent Trump critic, posted on X that "Joe Biden just did something that Donald Trump is humanly incapable of doing: He put his country first."

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate majority whip, issued a statement praising Biden's decades of public service.

“Throughout his public career, Joe Biden always put country first," Durbin was quoted as saying. "His four years as President made it clear that he was determined to put our country back on track and restore the soul of our nation. America will be forever grateful for all he has given to this country."

Illinois House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch said Biden “has put our country first time and time again. His commitment to moving forward even amidst adversity and personal loss embodies who we are as Americans. Today, he has put our country first again. I want to thank President Biden for his selfless leadership, and for again putting our country and our democracy ahead of individual ambition."

In 2020, Biden pitched himself as a transitional figure who wanted to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders. But once he secured the job he spent decades struggling to attain, he was reluctant to part with it.

Biden was once asked whether any other Democrats could beat Trump.

"Probably 50 of them," Biden replied. "No, I'm not the only one who can defeat him, but I will defeat him."

Debate performance sealed fate

Biden is already the country's oldest president and had insisted repeatedly that he was up for the challenge of another campaign and another term, telling voters all they had to was "watch me."

And watch him they did. His poor debate performance prompted a cascade of anxiety from Democrats and donors who said publicly what some had said privately for months, that they did not think he was up to the job for four more years.

Concerns over Biden's age have dogged him since he announced he was running for reelection, though Trump is just three years younger at 78. Most Americans view the president as too old for a second term, according to an August 2023 poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A majority also doubt his mental capability to be president, though that is also a weakness for Trump.

Justin Sullivan/Getty

Biden often remarked that he was not as young as he used to be, doesn't walk as easily or speak as smoothly, but that he had wisdom and decades of experience.

"I give you my word as a Biden. I would not be running again if I didn't believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job," he told supporters at a rally in North Carolina a day after the debate. "Because, quite frankly, the stakes are too high."

But voters had other problems with him, too — he has been deeply unpopular as a leader even as his administration steered the nation through recovery from a global pandemic, presided over a booming economy and passed major pieces of bipartisan legislation that will impact the nation for years to come. A majority of Americans disapprove of the way he's handling his job, and he's faced persistently low approval ratings on key issues including the economy and immigration.

Biden's age surfaced as a major factor during an investigation of his handling of classified documents. Special counsel Robert Hur said in February that the president came across in interviews with investigators as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

The president's allies seized on the statement as gratuitous and criticized Hur for including it in his report, and Biden himself angrily pushed back on descriptions of how he spoke about his late son.

Trump was reason Biden ran in 2020

Biden's motivation for running was deeply intertwined with Trump. He had retired from public service following eight years serving as vice president under Barack Obama and the death of his son Beau but decided to run after Trump's comments following a "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, when white supremacists descended on the city to protest the removal of its Confederate memorials.

Trump said: "You had some very bad people in the group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. On both sides."

That a sitting president didn't unequivocally condemn racism and white supremacy deeply offended Biden. Then, Biden won the 2020 election and Trump refused to concede and stood by for hours while his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, beating and bloodying law enforcement in a failed attempt to overturn the certification of Biden's win.

"If Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running," Biden once said at a campaign event.

Contributing: Tina Sfondeles, Lynn Sweet, Kaitlin Washburn