WASHINGTON DC: U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday stunningly ended his 2024 reelection bid against former President Donald Trump.
The 81-year-old Biden, with declining national polling numbers against the Republican challenger he defeated in the 2020 election, made the announcement as he was recovering from his third bout with COVID-19 at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, vacation home near the Atlantic Ocean.
He endorsed his second-in-command, Vice President Kamala Harris, to be the Democratic presidential nominee to run against Trump in the November 5 election.
She would be the first Black woman and South Asian major party presidential nominee in the 248-year history of the United States.
A growing number of Democratic leaders had in recent days called for Biden to step down since his faltering debate performance against Trump in late June.
But Biden, a five-decade veteran on the Washington political scene, had insisted he would not drop out unless “the Lord Almighty” asked him to or if he was shown in polling numbers that he could not beat Trump a second time or advised by his doctors he was not physically able to continue.
On Sunday, he said in a statement, “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 reminder of my term,” which ends in January.
Biden said Harris has been an “extraordinary partner” and has his “full support and endorsement” to be “the nominee of our party this year.” Biden said he would speak to the country later in the week about his decision.
Harris, a former senator from the country’s most populous state, California, until Biden picked her in 2020 as his vice presidential running mate, immediately said she would seek the party’s 2024 presidential nomination. (VOA)
