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Joe Biden officially announced that he will “stand down” from the 2024 presidential race, and forfeit his bid for a second term in the White House.
In a statement to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Biden explained that he would “step aside” from reelection “in the best interest” of the Democrat Party and the country.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden 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 focus soley on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
Biden, who is currently recovering from Covid-19, further noted that he would “speak to the Nation” later this week about his decision “in more detail.”
Biden concluded, “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.”
He further praised Kamala Harris for “being an extraordinary partner,” and later endorsed her in a separate post to X.
In the follow up post, he wrote “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 added, “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.”
This unprecedented, shocking announcement came amid the growing calls among Democrat lawmakers asking for Biden to step aside, unconvinced that the incumbent, aged 81, could defeat President Trump.
Numerous Democrat lawmakers publicly asked Biden to end his bid for reelection bid after his disastrous performance at the presidential debate.
The Biden campaign attempted to mitigate this fallout by appearing on several television interviews, but calls to drop out continued, and the campaign seemingly never recovered.
The incumbent was already the presumptive nominee for his party, having secured the majority of the required delegates needed to clinch the nomination. Now that he has withdrawn, any eligible candidate can run for the nomination.
According to the nomination rules, someone must receive signatures from at least 300 delegates, while 50 maximum can come from each state delegation in order to become a candidate, Fox News reported.
The candidate must then receive a vote from a majority of the pledged delegates at the party’s roll call vote, which would be at least 1,976 delegates, according to the network.
With the primaries races over, Democrats will now nominate a candidate during the roll call vote. If no candidate reaches a majority during the first round, multiple roll call votes will take place until someone is selected, but with superdelegates voting too.
The Democrats are currently expected to nominate a candidate in August, but before meeting at their party’s convention during a virtual roll call. Still, the process and schedule are subject to change.