Updates with reaction
President Joe Biden has dropped his bid for a second term and is endorsing vice president Kamala Harris to serve as his party's presidential nominee, bowing to pressure from top Democrats who no longer saw a viable path for him to defeat former president Donald Trump in the November election.
Biden committed to serve out the remainder of his term, which ends on 20 January 2025. Biden's abrupt withdrawal from the presidential race will leave it up to Democratic delegates to decide who will become their nominee by no later than the Democratic National Convention on 19-22 August.
"While it has been my intention to seek re-election, 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 on the social media site X.
In calling for Democrats to rally around Harris as the nominee, Biden said he was giving his "full support and endorsement" of Harris and urged Democrats to "come together and beat Trump". Other top voices in the Democratic Party have called for a "mini-primary" to allow a new candidate to emerge, but doing so could run the risk of a protracted and politically risky intraparty fight.
Trump, who has spent years attacking Biden's mental competency and age, said in a post today on Truth Social that Biden is not "fit to run for President" and had never been capable to lead the country. Other Republican leaders urged Biden to resign from the White House, which would lead to Harris being sworn in as president.
"If Joe Biden is not fit to run for president, he is not fit to serve as president," US House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said in a post on X. "He must resign the office immediately."
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) called Biden "one of the most accomplished and consequential leaders in American history". Jeffries did not explicitly endorse Harris.
The Democratic revolt against Biden staying in the race followed the first presidential debate last month, when Biden often appeared feeble and confused and struggled to clearly articulate his policy positions. Biden called the debate "a stupid mistake" and blamed it on his busy travel and work schedule.
But efforts by Biden and his campaign to reach out to Democratic lawmakers and donors have failed to assuage their concerns. Trump has also made polling gains in must-win battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan, and even threatened to be competitive in typically Democratic strongholds such as New Jersey.
Biden is the first sitting US president since Lyndon Johnson in 1968 to prematurely end his re-election campaign. Biden said he would speak "in more detail" later this week about his decision.
The Trump campaign had already started preparing for the possibility that Biden would drop out of the race after the presidential debate last month. Last week, a senior adviser for the Trump campaign declined to set a date for the vice presidential debate, saying it would be "unfair" to "whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate", in a taunting reference to the uncertainty of Biden's candidacy.
