US President has announced his intention to stand down from the presidential race and not to seek reelection.
“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,” he said in a statement posted on his X page.
He promised to speak to the nation later this week about his decision. In his statement, he listed his achievements as the US President. However he ony mentioned issues of foreign policy, saying only that his administration “revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.”
Presidential election will be held in the United States on November 5. Biden was supposed to remain at the top of the Democratic ticket. He is expected to be formally nominated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, on August 19-22.
However, after his fiasco at the televised election debate with Republican Donald Trump on June 27, calls intensified, particularly among Democrats, for the incumbent president to drop out of the race.
Biden endorses Harris after exiting race: President Joe Biden announced Sunday he is dropping out of the 2024 race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s new nominee, after mounting calls from Democrats to end his reelection bid. Harris vowed to “earn and win” the nomination, and Biden said he’d address the nation later this week in more detail.
A possible historic nominee: Harris could be the first Black woman and first Asian American to lead the ticket of a major political party. Other notable Democrats, including Bill and Hillary Clinton and leading progressives, also quickly announced their support for Harris. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries praised Biden’s leadership.
What happens next: With Biden out of the race, individual delegates will need to select the party’s nominee either during a virtual roll call tentatively scheduled for early August, or on the convention floor in Chicago next month. This is the first time a US president has exited a reelection run in decades.
