WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he is giving up running for re-election after weeks of speculation about his physical ability and mental agility, plunging the Democratic Party in uncertainty.
Biden backs his vice president Kamala Harris as a candidate for the Democratic Party.
The 81-year-old Democrat thus joins the very limited club of outgoing US presidents who have thrown in the towel in their attempt to secure a second term.
But he is the first to do so at this stage of the campaign. And the only one who had to give up because of doubts about his mental acuity following a calamitous debate with his Republican rival Donald Trump.
“The interest of my party”
“While it was my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country that I withdraw (from the race) and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a letter on social media X. He also said he would address the country in the evening.
The announcement was expected, even though his campaign team and he himself insisted that he would go all the way.
It all turns upside down a campaign that has already seen many twists and turns, most notably an assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July 13 during a rally.
Now the Democratic Party will have to find a replacement, either male or female, with only a few days left until the convention scheduled for Chicago (north) starting on August 19.
His vice president, Kamala Harris, would be a natural, but not automatic, choice to become the Democratic nominee.
The final say lies with the party delegates: 3,900 people with very varied profiles and most of them completely unknown to the public.
Out of favor
It was Joe Biden’s disastrous performance during his June 27 debate with Donald Trump that precipitated the events.
That day, from the first seconds of the verbal battle that he himself had called for, tens of millions of television viewers saw a hesitant, confused Biden, an image that left Democrats dismayed and disoriented.
He had a cold and coughed frequently. His voice was dull, he stumbled when he spoke and left sentences unfinished.
A painful spectacle that brought to light the doubts about his age, which those closest to him had tried hard to quell.
As soon as he finished, the question was inevitable: who would be the first to ask him to pass the baton?
Nervousness was contagious. Some Democratic congressmen publicly asked him to do so, fearing they would lose their seats in Congress.
Pressure from the “heavyweights”
As the days went by, heavyweights from the party began to join.
One after another, frightened by the polls that had him as a loser and fearing an overwhelming victory for Republican Donald Trump, they turned their backs on him. At first in private, suggesting that he reconsider his candidacy.
US media, citing anonymous sources, said former President Barack Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic congressional leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries had expressed concern.
And the images of Joe Biden testing positive for COVID-19 and struggling down the gangplank of his plane only amplified his side’s nervousness.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump, who miraculously survived an assassination attempt, appears to be enjoying a state of grace, with legal victories and consecration at the Republican Party convention.
Source: With information from AFP