President Joe Biden is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, he announced in a letter posted on X Sunday.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And 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,” he wrote. He thanked Vice President Kamala Harris for standing alongside him.
“I will speak to the nation later this week in more detail about my decision,” the president said.
In a separate post, Biden said he wanted “to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.”
The end of Biden’s more than a-year-long campaign leaves the Democrats scrambling for a new nominee weeks before the Democratic National Convention, even with his endorsement of Harris.
Axios reported conversations among top Democrats who said Biden might drop out as soon as this weekend. Over the last few weeks, Democratic lawmakers, operatives and donors have tried to persuade Biden to stand aside and allow another Democrat to run instead.
Then the president announced he had COVID-19, and had to step away from the campaign trail, leading the calls for him to drop out to get louder still.
The televised presidential debate last month between Biden and former President Donald Trump was what started the national conversation that led the Biden-Harris campaign to this point. The president performed poorly, as politicos and voters alike witnessed the president struggling to answer questions, counter Trump’s attacks and explain his administration’s policy positions clearly, despite Trump’s own issues during the debate, as the Deseret News previously reported.
Democrats asked President Biden to withdraw his bid
From Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to Hollywood star George Clooney and former President Barack Obama, Democrats across the country encouraged Biden to withdraw his bid, only for him and his campaign to dismiss any concerns and carry on.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., wrote a letter to Biden last month, according to a new report from The New York Times Thursday, asking the president to stand aside.
“There is no shame in taking a well-deserved bow to the overflowing appreciation of the crowd when your arm is tired out, and there is real danger for the team in ignoring the statistics. Your situation is tricky because you are both our star pitcher and our Manager,” he said.
“But in democracy, as you have shown us more than any prior president, you are not a Manager acting all alone; you are the co-Manager along with our great team and our great people. Caucus with the team, Mr. President. Hear them out. You will make the right decision.”
After dedicating almost all of his life to public service, Biden finally achieved his long-sought for goal of winning the presidency in 2020. Now he will also be remembered for a difficult and painful exit after a single term in office.
President Biden’s early life marked by tragedy
Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden had three younger siblings. He was born into an Irish Catholic family, and Biden has long spoken about the importance of his faith in helping him through the many tragedies he’s faced.
Biden attended the University of Delaware, where he earned history and political science degrees. A year after graduating from college in 1965, he married Neilia Hunter in New York. Together they had three children, Beau, Hunter and Naomi.
Biden then went to Syracuse University College of Law, and failed his first year for plagiarizing an article. After graduating, he worked for various law firms and practiced as a public defender before campaigning for the Senate and winning in 1972. At just 29, Biden was the youngest senator elected in the country. (He also has the title of oldest American president at 81.)
But then Biden faced tragedy when his wife and daughter died in a car accident just weeks before he was to be sworn in. Both his sons were injured, but survived the accident. Biden married first lady Jill Biden in 1977 at the United Nations Chapel. They share a daughter, Ashley Biden.
“Many people have gone through things like that,” Biden said in his commencement speech at Yale University in 2015. “But because I had the incredible good fortune of an extended family, grounded in love and loyalty, imbued with a sense of obligation imparted to each of us, I not only got help. But by focusing on my sons, I found my redemption.”
President Biden and his campaigns for the White House
Biden won reelection to his Senate seat in Delaware five consecutive times. As a senator, Biden supported the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and championed civil rights and environmental issues, while he was initially conservative on abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. He launched a bid for president in 1987, but there was a controversy after he plagiarized a speech and there were complications among his staffers, ultimately leading to a losing campaign despite ample funds and promise.
After waiting several years, he launched another presidential campaign in 2008, but struggled to draw support. But that campaign led him to be invited to join Obama as his running mate. He served as vice president from 2009-2017.
A New York Times report from his time as vice president pointed out strains between Biden and Obama, stemming from Biden’s gaffes. But they managed to resolve these differences.
The Obama-Biden administration is known for passing the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” aimed at reducing healthcare costs and expanding insurance access, for their work on environmental issues, and for introducing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program for immigrant youth.
On the world stage, the administration was responsible for the operation that resulted in terrorist Osama bin Laden’s death in 2011, and the negotiation of the Iran Nuclear Deal in 2015.
Grieving President Biden took a break from politics
In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, Biden had to decide whether he would run for president while dealing with more personal tragedy. His son Beau Biden died in 2015 after battling cancer. The president’s other son Hunter Biden struggled with his older brother’s death and with drug abuse.
“Nobody has a right, in my view, to seek that office unless they’re willing to give it 110% of who they are. And I am, as I said, I’m optimistic, I’m positive about where we’re going,” Biden told talk show host Stephen Colbert. “But I find myself — you understand it — sometimes it just overwhelms you.”
Ultimately, Biden decided not to run, making way for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to claim the Democratic nomination.
After leaving the office of vice president, Biden briefly taught at the University of Pennsylvania and developed the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. He wrote a memoir “Promise Me, Dad” in 2017.
President Biden’s achievements and downfalls as commander in chief
Biden’s break from political life lasted until April 2019, when he launched his presidential campaign. He became the presumptive Democratic nominee months later, beating out a wide field of candidates, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., Pete Buttigieg, the Biden administration’s transportation secretary, and his current vice president, Kamala Harris. The Biden-Harris ticket won the 2020 election, defeating Trump.
Biden’s inauguration was subdued after the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol and because of continued restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During his presidency so far, Biden passed economic stimulus and relief packages and made historic investments in climate action and infrastructure. But these accomplishments were marred by runaway inflation and the migrant crisis at the southern border. He also faced consistent concerns about his age.