President Biden said Sunday that he would withdraw as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee following weeks of criticism after a poor debate performance and a revolt from high-profile Democratic donors.
In a letter posted on his X account, Biden recounted his accomplishments while in office and said he would address the nation “later this week.”
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he wrote. “And 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.”
He didn’t endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, and it’s unclear who would replace Biden on the Democratic ticket with the Democratic National Convention just weeks away.
But she has become an appealing option for donors and lawmakers. The Biden campaign has also quietly tested whether Harris would be a viable choice against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in a survey of voters, the New York Times reported last week, citing three people informed about the effort.
Since Biden’s uninspired performance in the first presidential debate, questions have abounded about the president’s mental fitness and ability to beat Republican nominee Donald Trump in the November presidential election. A mass of influential supporters, donors, and Democratic lawmakers have called for Biden to step aside.
Heiress Abigail Disney said last week that she and her family would withhold their donations to the Democrats until Biden is replaced. Over the Fourth of July weekend, Biden’s Wall Street backers, including BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, privately discussed whether the president should step aside. And on Wednesday, actor George Clooney, who just last month hosted a giant fundraiser for Biden’s reelection wrote in a New York Times op-ed that Biden should bow out for the good of the party.
“We are not going to win in November with this president,” Clooney wrote.
Whoever replaces Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket faces a tough task to win back voters disillusioned with the party. Following Biden’s poor debate performance, which he later blamed on a cold, Trump grew his lead over the president by three percentage points, according to a New York Times and Siena College poll.
