US President Joe Biden has bowed out of his bid for re-election to The White House after his fellow Democrats lost faith in the octogenerian’s ability to beat Donald Trump and run the world’s most powerful nation for the next four years. They praised him for putting his country and his party before himself.
“Joe Biden has not only been a great president and a great legislative leader but he is a truly amazing human being. His decision of course was not easy, but he once again put his country, his party, and our future first,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer..
Republicans called on President Biden to immediately resign from office, saying that if he could not run for another term, then he’s unable to serve as president now. Joe Biden said that won’t be happening, posting on social media that he would remain in his role as president and commander-in-chief until his term ends in January 2025. He has not been seen in public since testing positive for COVID-19 last week, but vowed to address the nation about his decision later in the week.
“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. It is the first time in more than a half-century that an incumbent US president has given up his party’s nomination. His replacement has less than four months to wage a campaign.
President Biden endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris as his preferred nominee for the presidency. “My intention is to earn and win this nomination. I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party – and unite our nation – to defeat Donald Trump,” Ms. Harris vowed. All State Democratic Party delegations have reportedly voted to switch their previous endorsement for Joe Biden to his deputy.
That’s no guarantee that Kamala Harris will be the Democrat nominee at the party’s national convention in Chicago from August 19-22, but the BBC reports there are practical and political reasons for doing so.
“She is next in the constitutional line of succession. The optics of passing over the first black woman on a presidential ticket would be terrible for the party. She would also immediately have access to the roughly A$150 million in funds the campaign has raised so far.” Any other candidates could not access those funds.
Public opinion surveys show that she wouldn’t perform any better against Donald Trump than Joe Biden. Her previous run to be the Democrat nominee for the presidency in 2020 stumbled badly. As vice president, she was criticised for her handling of immigration issues, but praised for effectively communicating the party’s aggressively liberal stance on abortion rights.
There are concerns that if Kamala Harris fails to unite the party, the convention could turn into a political free-for-all, with alternative candidates competing for the nomination. However, two major names linked with such a challenge, Governors Gavin Newsom (California) and Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan), have both endorsed Vice President Harris.
President Biden’s campaign was doomed since a faltering performance in the June 27 debate against Donald Trump. Opposition from within his party steadily gained momentum with 36 congressional Democrats – more than one in eight – publicly calling on him to end his campaign.
Democrat lawmakers feared he could cost them not only The White House, but also the chance to control either chamber of the US Congress next year, which would leave Democrats effectively powerless in the nation’s capital. That stood in sharp contrast to what played out in the Republican Party last week, when members united around former president Trump and his 39-year-old running mate Senator JD Vance.
Sources close to the Trump campaign say it has been planning how to redeploy its resources, believing that Joe Biden would withdraw from the race. Publicly, Trump advisers and allies have been telling reporters they are not worried about facing Kamala Harris because they can simply tie her to Joe Biden’s record in office, particularly on immigration and inflation. They say they will try to portray her, and any other candidates being suggested as alternatives, as being to the left of the president on various policies.
The Trump campaign is already characterising Kamala Harris as President Biden’s “enabler in chief,” saying they owned each other’s records and “there is no distance between the two.” In recent weeks, it has launched pre-emptive political attacks on Ms. Harris to try to discredit her, especially on the Biden’s administration’s perceived failures on immigration.
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