At approximately 1:46 pm on July 21, 2024, President Joseph R. Biden ended his re-election bid. A copy of Biden's post on X (formerly Twitter) announcing his decision to step aside is below.
By ending his Presidential re-election campaign, Joseph R. Biden, Jr. appears to have performed one of the more selfless acts in politics.
The call for President Biden to stop his re-election bid came after Biden's poor performance in the first debate with Donald Trump. Primary Democratic donors had stated that they would freeze any campaign contributions unless Biden stepped aside. There was concern among Democratic Party leaders that Biden could not win the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia.
For their part, Republicans are calling for Biden to end his term now rather than serving out the rest of his term. In fact, Republican J. D. Vance called for Biden to step down during the Vice Presidential nominee's acceptance speech on the final day of the Republican Presidential Convention. About 40 minutes after Biden's announcement, Republican Representative Elise Stefanik also called on Biden to step down from office now.
About 40 minutes ending his bid, President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the Democratic Presidential nominee. It appears that big Democratic donors and senior Democrat party leaders are getting behind Harris's nomination.
The Democratic Presidential Convention is being held in Chicago on August 19 - 22. The question now becomes will the Convention be "open"? If Kamala Harris is the Democratic nominee, who would she seek as a running mate? What happens to the delegates earned by Joe Biden during the Primary campaign season? Finally, will Republicans try to prevent anyone but Joe Biden from being the Democratic nominee for President.
Two potential benefits of Biden stepping aside are that independent candidates (John F. Kennedy, Jr and Cornell West) may stop their presidential bids and that Donald Trump will be much older than whomever Democrats select as their candidate (Harris was born on October 20, 1964 and will be 60 years old at the time of the November 2024 election). Trump was born in June 1946 and will be 78.
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