President Joe Biden drops out of 2024 presidential race Khabritak 
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he will end his presidential re-election campaign, bringing an abrupt and humbling conclusion to his half-century-long political career and scrambling the race for the White House less than four months before Election Day.
Biden, 81, could not reverse growing sentiment within his party that he was too frail to serve and destined to lose to Donald Trump in November. He backed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the Democratic nominee.
Follow live updates on Biden's presidential election withdrawal
“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,” Biden wrote in a letter posted on X. “I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision.”
Biden thanked Harris for “being an extraordinary partner” in his letter and then endorsed her in a subsequent post.
“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,” Biden posted. “And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.”
Biden and Harris spoke multiple times Sunday ahead of the president’s announcement, according to a source familiar with the campaign.
In a statement, Harris thanked Biden for “his extraordinary leadership” and his “remarkable legacy of achievement.”
“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” she said.
Biden — who for weeks had insisted publicly that he planned to stay in the race — told his senior team he had changed his mind about continuing his campaign at 1:45 p.m. ET, according to a source with direct knowledge. The tweet announcing his decision was sent at 1:46 p.m.
His withdrawal caps a singular national political career, bookended by Richard Nixon’s fall and Trump’s rise. He mounted four presidential bids. He spent 36 years in the U.S. Senate representing tiny Delaware. He rose to the chairmanships of the powerful Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees. And he served eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president.
Swing state voters react to Biden withdrawal
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'Great public servant'
Reactions from politicians quickly began pouring in.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a post on X that Biden “has been an extraordinary, history-making president — a leader who has fought hard for working people and delivered astonishing results for all Americans.”
“He will go down in history as one of the most impactful and selfless presidents,” said Newsom, who was one of the most prominent Biden surrogates. Newsom has been floated as a possible Democratic presidential contender, but threw his support behind Harris hours after the announcement, saying in a post on X that "no one is better to prosecute the case against Donald Trump’s dark vision and guide our country in a healthier direction than America’s Vice President, @KamalaHarris."
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, another prominent Democrat talked about as a future national candidate, called Biden a “great public servant” in a post on X.
“My job in this election will remain the same: doing everything I can to elect Democrats and stop Donald Trump, a convicted felon whose agenda of raising families’ costs, banning abortion nationwide, and abusing the power of the White House to settle his own scores is completely wrong for Michigan,” Whitmer wrote.
First lady Jill Biden reposted her husband's announcement with heart emojis. “Down to the last hours of the decision only he could make, she was supportive of whatever road he chose," said her communications director, Elizabeth Alexander.
Across the aisle, Republicans slammed the move and many called on him to resign from office, days after the completion of a Republican National Convention where speaker after speaker slammed the Biden-Harris ticket.
“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for president, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson.
In a brief phone interview with NBC News, Trump reacted to Biden’s decision, calling the president “the worst president in the history of the United States by far.”
When asked whether he was surprised by Biden’s decision, Trump said that Biden “should never have been there in the first place.”
“He should have stayed in his basement,” Trump said.
In a fundraising email, Trump’s campaign said that Biden “quit the race in complete disgrace.”
An unprecedented decision
Biden’s decision to exit the race less than a month before his party’s convention and a few months before voters head to the polls is unprecedented in the modern political era. The last sitting president to abandon a re-election bid was Lyndon Johnson, whose expansion of the Vietnam War in the 1960s split the Democratic Party. But Johnson’s announcement came in March 1968 — eight months before that election.
“We’re in uncharted waters,” said Barbara Perry, a presidential studies professor at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “No president has dropped out or died this close to the convention.”
Replacing Biden atop the Democratic ticket is likely to set off internal Democratic tremors as ambitious officials maneuver to become his successor. Factions have already formed around Harris, Whitmer and Newsom.
Harris, who at 59 is 22 years younger than Biden, would seem to be the heir apparent. She broke a barrier as the first female vice president. A woman of color, she enjoys strong support among African Americans, a loyal piece of the Democratic coalition. Overall, though, Harris’ approval rating stood at only 32% in an NBC News poll released earlier this month.
“There’s no one you can name right now who is an obvious substitute,” Perry said. “That’s what makes this so uncertain and chaotic.”
Unlike Republican delegates, who are bound to their candidate, Democratic delegates aren’t, so they are free to do what they want at the convention. Biden could have some influence over the delegates, but they could vote for a different candidate than his chosen pick, pending any rule changes at the convention meant to address this unprecedented situation. The rules currently say that the delegates simply have to “in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.”
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