US President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he will not seek reelection for a second term. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) the 81-year-old confirmed his decision to quit and backed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the new Democratic Party candidate for the November 5 vote. Republican rival Donald Trump has claimed Harris would be easier to beat than Biden.
22 July 2024
Kamala Harris' campaign said it has raised $81 million in the first 24 hours since Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her bid for president.
In a statement, the campaign said the figure “reflects money raised across the campaign, Democratic National Committee, and joint fundraising committees.”
The massive donation haul represents the “largest 24-hour fundraising sum by either party in the 2024 presidential campaign,” according to the Associated Press.
Joe Biden’s Covid-19 symptoms have “resolved almost completely,” Dr. Kevin O’Connor has said in an update released by the White House.
Biden has been recuperating at his home in Delaware after testing positive for Covid-19 last Wednesday. O’Connor said Biden had taken his tenth dose of Paxlovid on Monday and “continues to perform all of his presidential duties.”
It was from his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, that Biden announced his decision to drop out of the presidential race on Sunday.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
“My enthusiastic support for Kamala Harris for President is official, personal and political,” Pelosi said in a statement on Monday. The Democratic heavyweight called Harris “brilliantly astute” and said she had “full confidence that she will lead us to victory in November.”
According to CNN, Harris and Pelosi spoke on Sunday after Joe Biden quit the race. NBC News reported earlier on Monday that Pelosi had been instrumental in nudging Biden to stand aside for another candidate.
The US Secret Service has “made adjustments” to Vice President Kamala Harris’ security detail since Joe Biden dropped out of the election race on Sunday, agency director Kimberly Cheatle has told a congressional hearing.
Cheatle has been testifying before the House Oversight Committee about the “failure” of her agency to prevent the assassination attempt against Donald Trump on July 13.
“Yesterday with the announcement of the president no longer running, we made adjustments to the Vice President’s detail,” she said.
In her opening remarks, Cheatle called the assassination attempt on Trump “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence has praised Joe Biden for “putting the interests of our nation ahead of his own” and making the “right decision” to end his bid for re-election.
Posting on X, Pence wrote that after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump earlier this month, it was time for both Republicans and Democrats to “project calm and send a message of strength and resolve to America’s friends and enemies alike”
Kamala Harris has made her first public remarks since Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her candidacy for president.
At a White House event greeting National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship teams, Harris called Biden’s accomplishments “unmatched in modern history” and said her intention was to “earn and win” the Democratic nomination in August.
As it was an official White House event, Harris did not address her own bid for the Oval Office.
A Kamala Harris presidency could signal a “change in tone” regarding Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies in Gaza, NBC reported, citing Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Arab American voters critical of Joe Biden’s approach don’t see Harris as being “responsible” for his policies, Miller said, adding that he expected a “more balanced rhetorical posture” from her.
In March, NBC reported that White House National Security Council officials had to “tone down” parts of Harris’ speech about the need for a six-week ceasefire. She is expected to meet with Netanyahu during his visit to the US this week, during which he will address Congress and meet President Biden at the White House.
Vice President Kamala Harris has received endorsements from the governors of Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, previously considered a potential contender for the Democratic nomination herself, said she was “fired up to endorse Kamala Harris.”
Whitmer released her statement in coordination with endorsements for Harris from Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Tony Evers of Wisconsin.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ team has seized upon a video of former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley predicting earlier this year that if Donald Trump becomes the GOP nominee, Harris would win the presidency.
“If Donald Trump is the [GOP] nominee, mark my words, we will see a President Kamala Harris,” Haley told Fox News in February, when she was running against Trump in the Republican primaries.
Haley has since endorsed Trump, but warned in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Saturday that her party needed to prepare for Biden’s withdrawal, because the Democrats would bring somebody “younger” and “vibrant” into the race.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has endorsed Kamala Harris for president. Speaking on Morning Joe, Adams said Harris is “the voice that the party needs right now.”
The Democrat had declined to immediately back Harris after Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign on Sunday, telling CNN that whichever other Democrats wanted to run, “they should have the right to do so.” On Monday, however, Adams backed the vice president, citing her history as a California prosecutor and her ability to bring back black and Latino voters.
“We’re hemorrhaging African Americans. We’re hemorrhaging Hispanic voters. We’re hemorrhaging those working-class people who don’t realize the Democratic Party has a good product,” he said.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has posted a fundraising appeal for Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I’ve known Kamala Harris a long time,” the failed presidential candidate wrote, sharing an old photo of herself with Harris on X. Clinton praised Harris as a “brilliant prosecutor” who can “make the case against convicted felon Donald Trump.”
Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi played a key role in “delicately nudging” President Joe Biden to exit the election race, NBC News has reported.
Three sources told the outlet that any time the issue of Biden dropping out began to lose momentum, Pelosi was the one “fanning the flames” to reignite it.
Pelosi never publicly called on Biden to quit the race, but instead worked “quietly and methodically” behind the scenes advising rank-and-file lawmakers to “speak their conscience” on Biden’s candidacy. Asked how responsible Pelosi was for Biden’s decision to quit, one Democratic lawmaker said “50%.”
Independent West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who had called on Biden to drop out of the race, has said he would not serve as Kamala Harris’ vice president if asked.
The former Democrat, who switched to Independent in May, told CNN he hasn’t “worked with Kamala Harris at all” and “you don’t want a 76-year-old vice president right now.”
While there had been some speculation that Manchin would launch his own White House bid, he admitted it would be “almost impossible” to win the nomination as an Independent.
On Sunday evening, Vice President Kamala Harris reached out to former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she attempted to rally support for her campaign in the aftermath of Biden’s exit from the race, a source told CNN.
While both Clintons have thrown their support behind Harris, Obama has not endorsed her, urging an open contest “from which an outstanding nominee emerges” at the party convention in August.
President Joe Biden hesitated in dropping his re-election campaign partly because he and his senior advisers worried that Vice President Kamala Harris “wasn’t up to taking on Donald Trump,” Axios has reported, citing three Biden aides familiar with the talks.
Biden dropped his bid on Sunday and quickly endorsed Harris, offering her his full support.
The Wall Street Journal has compiled a list of potential running mates for Vice President Kamala Harris, should the Democratic Party nominate her as its presidential candidate at the National Convention in Chicago, which kicks off on August 19. It includes Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. Other possible contenders named by the media outlet include North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona, and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.
According to the WSJ, the Democratic Party is likely to favor a candidate for vice president from one of the swing states, where neither party enjoys a clear advantage.
Tech investor David Sacks has highlighted that Biden has only shared a written letter via his X account (formerly Twitter), and “hasn’t been seen or heard from directly.” In a post on X on Monday, Sacks noted that the previous US president to announce his exit from the race for reelection, Lyndon B. Johnson, “gave a 40-minute address from the Oval Office” when he withdrew back in 1968.
Sacks claimed that the mainstream media “just applauds [and] doesn’t ask any questions,” describing the situation as “very strange.”
Amid mounting pressure to step aside from within the Democratic Party, Biden announced on Sunday that he will not seek a second term in the November 5 presidential election.
Last Wednesday, the veteran politician tested positive for Covid-19, and has since been self-isolating at his Delaware home.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has accused the Democratic Party of “rigging” the nomination process by getting “a monumentally unpopular vice president to step into President Biden’s shoes,” arguing that “it’s the easiest way to hold onto the money,” referring to campaign finance rules that make transferring funds from the incumbent president to his running mate possible during the election cycle.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has mocked the son of billionaire financier George Soros for quickly endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the “most qualified candidate we have” to replace Joe Biden.
“I’d just like to thank Alexander Soros for not keeping everyone in suspense about who the next puppet would be,” Musk, the owner of X, wrote.
Democrats contributed $46.7 million to the presidential campaign on Sunday, following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race, according to data released by ActBlue, the leading site for processing Democratic dnoations.
The rate of incoming cash rose from an average of $200,000 per hour to $7.5 million per hour following Biden's announcement.
”This might be the greatest fundraising moment in Democratic Party history,” Kenneth Pennington, a Democratic digital strategist, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The meeting between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, set to take place this week, will go ahead as planned, AP reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Netanyahu’s office confirmed that the Prime Minister would be traveling to the US on Monday, as scheduled. Biden's team has expressed confidence that Netanyahu will refrain from attacking the president when he addresses Congress.
The exact timing of the meeting between Biden and Netanyahu has yet to be established as the US president is still recovering from Covid-19 at his Delaware home, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Netanyahu is reportedly also set to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been endorsed by Biden as the new Democratic nominee for the November elections.
Rep. Richard Hudson, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, accused Democrats of lying to the American people. He argued that if Biden lacks the mental capacity to run for re-election, he cannot continue to serve the remainder of his term.
”This is a scandal of historic proportions. President Biden is incapacitated, Democrats knew, and they lied to the American people to cover it up. If Biden is mentally unfit to campaign, he is mentally unfit to have the nuclear codes,” Hudson wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“Joe Biden should resign immediately. If he lacks the mental capacity to run for re-election, why should we trust him with our nuclear code?” he reiterated in another post.
21 July 2024
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called on the Democratic Party to hold an open nomination contest to replace Biden instead of “anointing a candidate hand-picked by [Democrat] elites.”
“If they had done this to begin with, I would not have had to leave the Democratic Party,” Kennedy added in a post on X.
There needs to be an investigation into a possible conspiracy among American political circles and the media to manipulate the public regarding President Joe Biden’s health condition, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.
Biden announced that he would not seek re-election in a post on X (formerly Twitter), and Zakharova noted it was highly unusual to have just a screenshot of a letter posted on social media rather than a video or audio statement.
“In the modern world, filled with post-truth and deep fakes, it’s very important to leave no room for speculation,” Zakharova said.
Donald Trump has complained that after spending so much “time and money on fighting Crooked Joe Biden,” his campaign now has to “start all over again” and focus on Harris. “Shouldn’t the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud in that everybody around Joe, including his doctors and the Fake News Media, knew he was not capable of running for, or being, President?” he wrote in a post to his Truth Social platform.
Despite his complaint, Trump’s campaign was evidently expecting Biden to withdraw from the race, and released an ad attacking Harris within an hour of Biden’s announcement earlier on Sunday.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has endorsed Harris, vowing to “do everything I can to help elect” Biden’s second-in-command in November. Ever since rumors of Biden’s dropping out began circulating, Shapiro’s name has repeatedly cropped up in American media as a potential running mate for Harris.
77 Democratic delegates from Tennessee have pledged to support Harris’ bid for the party’s nomination, Reuters has reported. Biden won the support of more than 3,000 delegates in the party’s largely symbolic primary elections, far above the 1,976 needed to clinch the nomination.
According to the news agency, Democratic party chairs at the state level are currently discussing transferring their support directly from Biden to Harris, a move that would lock her in as candidate before the Democratic National Convention next month.
The Biden-Harris campaign has rebranded itself as “Harris for President,” according to paperwork filed with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday. “Vice President Harris is now a candidate for United States President in the 2024 election and will henceforth be conducting campaign activities only in pursuit of that office,” her campaign wrote in a letter accompanying the filing.
The Democratic National Committee then filed paperwork to change the names of Joe Biden’s joint fundraising committees to the “Harris Victory Fund” and “Harris Action.”
Control of the Biden-Harris campaign’s war chest – which stood at just under $96 million at the end of June – hinges on Harris officially winning her party’s nomination for the presidency.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has thanked Biden for his “friendship and steadfast support for the Israeli people over his decades long career.”
Ever since Israel declared war on Hamas in October, Biden’s “ironclad” support for the Jewish state has angered his party’s progressive wing. In an apparent gesture to these progressives, Biden froze the delivery of around 1,800 2,000-pound bombs to Israel earlier this summer. However, his administration has given Israel more than 14,000 of the same bombs, as well as drone-launched missiles and $6.5 billion in other military aid since October 7, according to Reuters.
Alex Soros, the son of Billionaire financier George Soros and heir to his father’s philanthropic empire, has endorsed Harris, describing her as “the best and most qualified candidate we have.”
George Soros funneled around $128 million to Democratic candidates and organizations during the midterm elections in 2022, and gifted $5 million to the main political action committee backing Biden the day after the president’s flubbed debate against Donald Trump last month.
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has claimed that he “heard last week that [Biden] would resign at this exact time and date. It was widespread knowledge in DC.”
“The real powers that be are discarding the old puppet in favor of one that has a better chance of fooling the public,” Musk wrote on X, which he owns.
Musk endorsed Donald Trump last week, after the Republican candidate narrowly avoided death during an assassination attempt at a campaign rally. The Wall Street Journal then reported that Musk plans to donate around $45 million per month to a political action committee backing Trump, although Musk dismissed the report as “FAKE GNUS [News]” in a reply to the newspaper on X.
Harris is “unfit and unqualified to be our president and commander in chief,” former Democrat and 2020 presidential contender Tulsi Gabbard has said. In a video posted on social media, Gabbard declared that “the prospect of Kamala Harris making decisions about war and peace and where to send my brothers and sisters in uniform…should be terrifying to every American.”
Gabbard, a military veteran and staunch isolationist, went on to claim that Harris would serve the same “elitist cabal of warmongers” who “call the shots” in Biden’s White House.
“If we cherish peace and freedom, if we love our country, we must vote against Kamala Harris…and vote for Donald Trump,” she concluded.
Should Harris be formally nominated as the Democratic party's presidential candidate, it will mark the first time in 56 years that an American political party has put forward a candidate who did not compete in any primary election. Harris dropped out of the race for the presidency in 2019 with her polling numbers in the single digits.
Hubert Humphrey was nominated by the Democratic Party in 1968, after President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would not seek a second term in office. After his contentious nomination, Humphrey was defeated by Richard Nixon, with third-party candidate George Wallace winning five southern states.
Democratic party megadonor and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman has endorsed Harris, describing her as “the right person at the right time.” Hoffman stuck by Biden until Sunday, even as liberal lawmakers, pundits, and business figures called on the president to suspend his campaign in the wake of his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump last month.
Hoffman grabbed headlines earlier this week when his top political strategist circulated a memo alleging that the attempted assassination of Trump was “staged” by Trump and the Russian government.
Former President Barack Obama has praised Biden as “a patriot of the highest order,” and described his decision to step down as an “historic example of a genuine public servant once again putting the interests of the American people ahead of his own.”
Obama, who reportedly played a key role in pressing his former vice president to step down, did not endorse or even mention Harris in his statement. Instead, he called on Democrats to “create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges” at the party’s convention in August.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told reporters that Moscow will remain “patient and watch closely what happens next.” Russian President Vladimir Putin previously expressed a preference for Biden, arguing that the 81-year-old was a “predictable” candidate, Peskov continued, adding that with four months until the election, much can change.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a pro-Trump Republican who competed in the GOP’s primary elections this year, has boasted that he predicted Biden’s exit from the race “right down to the exact timing.”
Ramaswamy has argued since last year that Biden would drop out, telling Fox News earlier this summer that “the managerial class around Biden has lost their use for him…they want this to happen as late as possible in the cycle. They get to put up a candidate who will not yet have the scrutiny [to] keep Republicans guessing.”
A host of Republican lawmakers have joined House Speaker Mike Johnson in calling for Biden’s resignation. Florida Senator Rick Scott, Louisiana Representative Steve Scalise, and House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik of New York are among dozens who have demanded that Biden relinquish the presidency.
”If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining President?” Ohio Senator and Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, wrote on X. “Not running for reelection would be a clear admission that President Trump was right all along about Biden not being mentally fit enough to serve as Commander-in-Chief. There is no middle ground.”
Donald Trump’s campaign has released an ad attacking Harris as complicit in shielding Biden’s cognitive decline from the world.
“Kamala was in on it,” the ad states. “She covered up Joe’s obvious mental decline. But Kamala knew Joe couldn’t do the job, so she did it, and look what she got done,” the ad continues, blaming the US’ record illegal immigration numbers and “runaway inflation” on Harris.
Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, have said they are “honored to join the President in endorsing Vice President Harris and will do whatever we can to support her.”
The Clintons thanked Biden for “his extraordinary career of service” and claimed that “America’s future depends” on Harris defeating Donald Trump in November’s election.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson has called the development an “unprecedented juncture in American history,” stating that “the Democrat Party forced the Democrat nominee off the ballot, just over 100 days before the election.” The speaker urged Biden to resign immediately over the move, adding that the Democrats’ prospects “are no better” with Harris.
“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough,” Johnson said in a statement.
Former US President Donald Trump has slammed Biden as the “worst president ever.” Speaking on CNN, the candidate also pledged to undo the alleged damage done by Biden once he is returned to office.
“We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
In a follow-up X post, Biden formally endorsed his VP Kamala Harris as the Democratic party pick for the elections.
“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats - it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this,” Biden wrote, reiterating his pledge to focus all his “energies” on his presidential duties.
US President Joe Biden has formally withdrawn from the presidential race, announcing the decision in an open letter posted on X (formerly Twitter).
“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 wrote.