Joe Biden withdraws from presidential race after weeks of pressure to quit

Joe Biden has withdrawn from his presidential re-election race and endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris to take his place at the top of their party’s ticket, an extraordinary decision upending American politics that plunges the Democratic nomination into uncertainty just months before the November election against Donald Trump – a candidate Biden has warned is an existential threat to US democracy.

“While it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a letter announcing his decision.

Biden thanked Harris in his letter and later endorsed her as the Democratic nominee for president in a tweet. He said he planned to speak to the nation in more detail later this week.

“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” he said. “Democrats – it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”

Harris thanked Biden in a statement “for his extraordinary leadership as president”.

“I am honored to have the president’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” she said.“I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic party – and unite our nation – to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”

Biden made the stunning announcement after a weeks-long pressure campaign by Democratic leaders, organizers and donors who increasingly saw no path to victory so long as the embattled incumbent remained on the ticket. More than 30 Democratic members of Congress had called on Biden to step aside.

As recently as Friday, his campaign had insisted he was staying in the race. An ABC News/Ipsos poll released on Sunday found that 60% of Democrats believed he should end his run. The same poll found that nearly 76% of Democrats would be satisfied with Harris as the nominee.

Biden’s decision to withdraw appears to have been abrupt. The president reportedly told his senior staff on Sunday afternoon that he had changed his mind about staying in the race, and campaign officials were still reportedly on the phone with delegates asking if they could count on their support.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Biden “was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve – And never was!”

Minutes after Sunday’s announcement, Trump told CNN that he believed it would be easier to defeat Harris than it would have been to beat Biden.

Harris’s nomination is not automatic, but it’s unclear if any other Democrats will try to challenge her. By Sunday evening, several prominent Democrats who have long been rumored to have considered a run for president endorsed Harris, including Gavin Newsom, the California governor. Others who have been named as potential candidates include the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker.

Also unclear are Harris’s chances against Trump. An NBC News poll this month showed Trump leading both Biden and Harris by 2 points, which was within the survey’s margin of error.

The chair of the Democratic National Committee, Jaime Harrison, said the party would “undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward” to choose a candidate to defeat Trump in November.

As the party considered the path forward, prominent figures in the party expressed their admiration for Biden on Sunday, reflecting on his presidency and his decision to forgo seeking another term. Some followed Biden’s lead and endorsed Harris, while others said they favored an open nominating process.

Barack Obama, who selected Biden as his vice-president for both of his terms as president, called Biden as “ a patriot of the highest order.”

“Joe Biden has been one of America’s most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me,” Obama said.

Reports in recent days suggested there was tension between the two men over Biden feeling as though Obama and other Democrats were trying to push him out. But on Sunday, Obama lauded Biden’s decision as a “testament” to “his love of the country” and “a historic example of a genuine public servant once again putting the interests of the American people ahead of his own – that future generations of leaders will do well to follow.”

“I know Joe has never backed down from a fight. But I know he wouldn’t make this decision unless he believed it was right for America,” Obama said.

Obama, who stopped short of endorsing Harris, said Democrats would be navigating “uncharted waters in the days ahead”. He added: “But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.”

The former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who in recent days had become a major figure in signaling Democratic concerns that Biden would be able to win, spoke glowingly of Biden’s decision on Sunday.

“President Biden is a patriotic American who has always put our country first. His legacy of vision, values and leadership make him one of the most consequential presidents in American history,” she wrote.

Bill and Hillary Clinton endorsed Harris in a joint statement. “We are honored to join the president in endorsing Vice-President Harris and will do whatever we can to support her,” the former president and secretary of state said.

Reports suggested Harris was quickly working to shore up Democratic support. A wave of Democratic senators and House members, including the senators Mark Warner, Tammy Baldwin and Amy Klobuchar, offered their support, as did the California congressman Adam Schiff..

ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform, announced that in the five hours after Biden stepped down, over $27.5m had been raised by small-dollar donors for Harris’s campaign.

Republicans, meanwhile, tried to cast Biden’s decision as undemocratic.

The US House speaker, Mike Johnson, suggested during appearances on Sunday talkshows that Republicans would bring legal challenges to attempt to block efforts to change the Democratic ticket. Experts are skeptical those efforts will succeed.

Johnson was also one of several top Republicans who called on Biden to resign the presidency – something Biden is almost certain not to do.

“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for president, he is not fit to serve as president. He must resign the office immediately,” Johnson said, adding that election day on 5 November “cannot arrive soon enough”.

The Ohio senator JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, made similar comments on Sunday.

Biden’s decision to step aside, though remain as president, caps a singular few weeks in American politics, the latest stunning episode in an unusually tumultuous election season.

Trump, the former president and Republican nominee, narrowly survived an attempt on his life during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania that bloodied his ear and left one spectator dead. Biden, after appealing for calm in the wake of attack, had returned to the campaign trail last week determined to salvage his candidacy and once again prove his doubters wrong.

In media appearances, the president was defiant, insisting that he would remain the party’s standard-bearer in November. On Wednesday, before delivering remarks at a conference in Nevada, he tested positive for Covid.

The president’s withdrawal pushes the Democratic party into largely uncharted waters, with its national convention scheduled to begin on 19 August in Chicago. The nominee will also have a tight window to choose a running mate to take on Trump and Vance. It is not clear how Democrats will choose a new ticket.

Harris, 59, has the largest national profile of any Democratic candidate, and delegates may view her as the safest option. Campaign finance experts also say that Harris would have the most straightforward legal argument to keep the Biden campaign’s fundraising haul, while another nominee might have to forfeit that money. As of late May, the Biden campaign had $91.6m in cash on hand.