Joe Biden pulls out of US presidential race

Biden made the announcement in an open letter posted on X just before 4am on Monday AEST.

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

“It has been the greatest honour 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 the letter.

READ BIDEN’S FULL LETTER BELOW

In his letter he thanked but did not immediately throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s instant favourite for the nomination at its August convention in Chicago. In a subsequent statement Biden endorsed Harris to be the Democrat candidate for president.

“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 said.

“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.”

The 81-year-old president, who turns 82 just weeks after the election on November 5, has showed worrying signs of ageing that were most notable during his debate with Donald Trump on June 27. Many millions watched live as the president trailed off, often giving nonsensical answers and failing to call out his opponent’s many falsehoods.

Trump wasted no time celebrating his would-be opponent’s withdrawal, saying Biden wasn’t “fit to run for president”.

“We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly,” Trump said, on his Truth Social platform.

“MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Biden’s decision comes as he has been isolating at his Delaware beach house after being diagnosed with COVID-19 last week, huddling with a shrinking circle of close confidants and family members about his political future. Biden said he would address the nation later this week to provide “detail” about his decision.

Many Democrats had spoken out encouraging Biden to step aside for a new candidate, and he was believed to have lost the support of some of the party’s most influential figures, including Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, who Biden served as vice president.

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.

Biden ‘will go down in history’

Colleagues and family were swift to pay tribute to Biden for his lifetime dedicated to service.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who had been one of the favourites to replace Biden, said the president would “go down in history as one of the most impactful and selfless presidents”.

“President Biden has been an extraordinary, history-making president — a leader who has fought hard for working people and delivered astonishing results for all Americans,” he said.

Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who ran for Democratic nominee in 2020, said Biden had “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.”

Biden’s granddaughter, Naomi Biden, praised the legacy of “my Pop … who has served our country with every bit of his soul and with unmatched distinction”.

“Not only has he been—and will continue to be—the most effective president of our lifetime, but he has likely already cemented himself as the most effective and impactful public servant in our nation’s history.

“He has been at the centre of, and had a material impact on, literally every single major issue that our country and world has faced for 50 years.”

Concerns for Biden’s age dogged him for years

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.”

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.

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, which were worth a whole lot.

“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 criticised Hur for including it in his report, and Biden himself angrily pushed back on descriptions of how he spoke about his late son.

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 US Capitol on January 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 during at a campaign event.

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Biden’s decision to leave the race, but he and his team had made their preference for facing Biden clear.

– Reported with the Associated Press

Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a nation.

Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We’ve made historic investments in rebuilding our nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We’ve provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances. Passed the first gun safety law in 30 years. Appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court. And passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world. America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today.

I know none of this could have been done without you, the American people. Together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We’ve protected and preserved our Democracy. And we’ve revitalised and strengthened our alliances around the world.

It has been the greatest honour 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.

I will speak to the nation alter this week in more detail about my decision.

For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me.

I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can’t do — when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America.