President Joe Biden withdraws from the race for the White House
US President Joe Biden officially announced his withdrawal from the 2024 election race and endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate.
According to RIA Novosti, US President Joe Biden officially announced his withdrawal from the election campaign. Mr. Biden had to spend nearly a month trying to save the Democratic Party.
“I think it would be best for the party and the country if I decline to run, and focus on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” President Joe Biden wrote on social networking site X on July 21 (Washington time).
President Biden's case is unprecedented in American history. American politics has known only one case in which an official candidate for a second term withdrew. That was Lyndon Johnson in 1968.
Joe Biden's move comes after more than three weeks of intense pressure from Democratic allies to withdraw from the race, following his "failed" debate performance in late June against Republican former President Donald Trump.
The Democrats will now have to find a replacement candidate, with less than a month to go until the party’s national convention in August. The problem: The Democrats are short-handed. While Vice President Kamala Harris and, for example, California Governor Gavin Newsom have been in the media spotlight, they haven’t had enough time to prepare for their roles as party candidates.
If Ms. Harris becomes the Democratic presidential nominee, she will become the first woman of Asian descent and color to run for the White House.
According to Reuters, this move would be an unprecedented gamble by the Democratic Party.
However, analysts say Vice President Harris holds some advantages, as she was on the list of winning candidates in 2020 and received millions of votes in this year's primary election.