Rehoboth Beach, US: Joe Biden dropped out of the US presidential election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s new nominee, causing fresh turmoil ahead of the November 5 election. Biden, 81, said he was acting in the “best interest of his party and the country” by bowing to weeks of pressure after a disastrous June debate against Donald Trump. The dramatic shift will wrong-foot Republicans, whose campaign was solely focused on Biden and will now feature 78-year-old Trump, the oldest presidential nominee in US history, up against a far younger opponent.
Biden’s withdrawal came with no warning as he recovered from Covid at his Delaware beach house. He said it had been the “greatest honor of my life” to be president and would address the nation later this week. He offered his “full support and endorsement” for Harris, with his campaign filing official notice to change its name to “Harris for President.” Endorsements began streaming in for Harris almost immediately from Democratic big shots and those seen as potential rivals for the nomination, such as California Governor Gavin Newsom. Democratic fundraising group ActBlue reported that Harris received $27.5 million in small-donor contributions over the course of just five hours.
Democrats must now scramble to confirm a new candidate at their party convention in Chicago on August 19. Harris, the first Black and South Asian woman vice president in US history, praised Biden for his “selfless and patriotic act” and vowed to “earn and win” the nomination. Biden’s decision to exit caps a tense and chaotic period in the US election, with Trump having survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally on July 13. The Democrat is the first president in US history to drop out so late in an election race.
Harris struggled to make an impact in her first years in the White House but performed strongly on the campaign trail on key issues such as abortion. In recent weeks, the Biden campaign has reportedly been quietly carrying out a head-to-head survey of voters measuring how the former California prosecutor matched up against convicted felon Trump.