MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Biden calls it quits - opens door to host of doubts

Biden said he would elaborate this week on his decision to drop his reelection bid while many Republicans want him gone from the White House at once

US President Joseph Biden finally succumbed to mounting pressure and dropped his reelection bid Sunday, which had already been heralded as the likely outcome for the weekend. The 81-year-old leader endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to pick up the nomination as the Democratic Party debates whether to endorse her or hold some sort of primary election.

 In any case, Sunday's announcement prompted the following questions: 1. Will Harris remain the Democratic challenger to former President Donald Trump? 2. If yes, who will be her running mate? 3. If not, who will the Democratic Party appoint and how? Recent polls showed that only former First Lady Michelle Obama could threaten Trump's chances of getting back to the White House. Last but not least, how will this new scenario play out regarding independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? He is not believed to stand a chance against Trump. But, in all honesty, no Democratic candidate does either, his family's tradition within the party would leave it up to voters to choose between the old and known version of that political movement against the yet unknown new one put forward in haste.

pic.twitter.com/RMIRvlSOYw

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024

Upon conveying his decision, the ailing 81-year-old Biden highlighted the “great progress” achieved under his administration.

His full message went: “My Fellow Americans, Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation. Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We've made historic investments in rebuilding our Nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We've provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances. Passed the first gun safety law in 30 years.

Appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court [Kentaji Brown Jackson]. And passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world. America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today.

I know none of this could have been done without you, the American people. Together, we overcame a once-in-a-century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We've protected and preserved our Democracy. And we've revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.

It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. 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. I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision.

For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me. I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can't do -- when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America.”

Biden later posted on X that “My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. 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. Democrats - it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”

Biden thus became the first president to not seek a second full term since fellow Democrats Harry S. Truman in 1952 and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968, both of whom had been first promoted after the deaths of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, respectively. The last time a president served only one term and chose not to run again was Rutherford Hayes in 1880.

Minutes after Biden's announcement, Trump told CNN that Biden would be remembered as “the single worst president by far in the history of our country” and added that Harris would be an easier opponent to defeat.

“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve - And never was! He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement. All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President, and he wasn’t,” Trump also wrote on Truth Social. “We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly,” he added.

In this scenario, Rep. Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, accused Democrats of lying to the American people and argued that if Biden could not run for re-election, he was just as unfit to serve out 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 on X, where he was supported by House Speaker Mike Johnson. There seemed to be a broad consensus among Republicans that Biden should step down altogether, which would entail leaving the White House as well. “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.

“Not running for re-election 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,” Trump’s running mate Senator J.D. Vance also wrote.

RFK Jr. slammed the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for “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.

“I call on the Democratic Party to return to its traditional commitment to democracy and exemplify it with an open process. Instead of anointing a candidate hand-picked by DNC elites, the party should use neutral polling to identify the candidate who can best beat Donald Trump. The delegates should then select a nominee based on this information.” He also criticized the DNC for trying to hide Biden’s health issues.

The son of a slain presidential candidate and nephew of a head of state killed while in office also said Trump and Harris represented “corporate interests rather than the interests of the American public.”

He then admitted he would be willing to accept the Democratic nomination if it was offered to him, arguing that he is “the only presidential candidate who can beat Donald Trump.”

“I believe at this point it’s a two-man race or two-person race. Let me put it that way. And, you know, I’m in the best position to win,” he stressed.

“I commend President Biden for stepping down. His infirmities were evident to any unbiased observer from the beginning. It was this progressive deterioration — and his abandonment of Democratic Party principles — that prompted me to enter the race and ensure American voters had a viable, vigorous alternative to Donald Trump.

Yet the response of the DNC was to try and hide President Biden’s degeneration from the American public and disable democracy to ram him through to his party’s nomination.

Many Americans fear that the same DNC elites are about to rig the nominating process again to get a monumentally unpopular vice president to step into President Biden’s shoes.

I call on the Democratic Party to return to its traditional commitment to democracy and exemplify it with an open process. Instead of anointing a candidate hand-picked by DNC elites, the party should use neutral polling to identify the candidate who can best beat Donald Trump. The delegates should then select a nominee based on this information.

If they had done this to begin with, I would not have had to leave the Democratic Party,” he wrote on X.