En este momento estás viendo Biden, stepping aside

Biden, stepping aside

It was an open secret, but the only thing missing was the when: on 21 July, less than a month before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, US President Joe Biden bowed to pressure and resigned for re-election in 2024.

There is a precedent: in 1968, the same thing happened to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Fifty-six years after that episode in national history, Biden, the 46th President, is stepping aside.

He will back the candidacy of his vice-president Kamala Harris, whom he said a few days ago was perfectly qualified to be president.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was Biden’s poor performance on 27 June during the presidential debate with his Republican rival, Donald Trump, after which he was unable to reverse criticism and a sentiment that grew stronger, he was perceived as too fragile to face his opponent, even though he challenged and defeated him in the 2020 election.

George Clooney, the famous Hollywood actor and producer, a mega-donor to the Democratic campaign, published an article in The New York Times in which he said: «I love Joe Biden. But we need a new candidate.

In his reflection in the influential US newspaper, the film director noted that «the only battle he can’t win is the fight against time».

«None of us can. It’s devastating to say,» he said, «but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the (…) Biden of 2010. It wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. It was the same man we saw at the debate (at CNN headquarters in Atlanta)».

According to Clooney the Democrats were «so terrified of the prospect of a second Trump term that we have chosen to ignore all the warning signs».

The actor’s article was quoted in countless media outlets and was perhaps an important element in the rising tide that the president could not escape.

DAYS BEFORE

In a letter to congressional Democrats in the first half of July, Biden wrote that after the Independence Day holidays, he wanted to make it clear that above speculation he remained committed to the race.

«I want you to know,» he stressed, «that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to seeing it through to the end, and to defeating Donald Trump,» he said.

«I have had extensive conversations with party leaders, elected officials, rank-and-file members and, most importantly, Democratic voters over these past 10 days,» Biden emphasised in the letter quoted in the press.

He said he had listened to «people’s concerns: their fears (…) in good faith about what is at stake in this election. I am not blind to them.

«Believe me, I know better than anyone the responsibility and the burden that comes with being our party’s nominee,» said the incumbent, who noted that «we had a Democratic nomination process and the voters have spoken clearly and decisively».

«I received more than 14 million votes, 87 percent of the votes cast during the entire nomination process. I have almost 3,900 delegates, which makes me the presumptive nominee of our party by a wide margin,» he said.

But in reality, Common Dreams noted, Biden faced no major challenge during this year’s Democratic primary process.

However, he did face a number of states in which voters checked the «uncommitted» box to express outrage over his administration’s support for Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. Protests against Biden’s complicit role in the genocide of the Palestinian population have dogged Biden across the country.

Recently, in an effort to salvage his candidacy from the wreckage, Biden gave an interview to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, which failed to rebound in the numbers and added to doubts about the viability of staying in the race.

At the same time he called those calling for his exit from the race «elites». «I get so frustrated by the elites (…), the elites of the party,» he said on MSNBC.

During the audio-only conversation, Biden rejected their description of him as a «presumptive Democratic nominee». «I’m more than a presumptive, I’m going to be the Democratic nominee,» he stressed.

All this followed a weekend of campaign travel and the NATO Summit in Washington on 9-12 July, where he held a solo press conference.

UNDER PRESSURE, THE END

«And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interests of my party and the country for me to step down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,» Biden, who is recovering from Covid-19 at his Delaware residence, wrote in a letter he posted on social networking site X on 21 July.

He added that he will speak to the nation to offer more details about his decision and in another message on the same internet platform he offered his «full support and endorsement» for Harris as the Democratic Party’s candidate.

«My first decision as the party’s nominee in 2020 was to choose Kamala Harris as my vice chair,» he said.

And it was the best decision I ever made,» he reiterated. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be our party’s nominee this year. Democrats, it’s time to unite and defeat Trump. Let’s do it.

At least 35 Democrats in Congress publicly called for Biden’s exit from the race in recent days. Among the members of Capitol Hill who called the president out are Senator Sherrod Brown and Representatives Adam Schiff and Jamie Raskin.

Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former President Barack Obama also reportedly expressed concern that Biden’s path to victory had narrowed.

House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Biden at the White House, just as the former Speaker of the House privately raised with him that he would not beat Trump with the polls he was showing.

This growing pressure was also joined by most of the mainstream media in the United States.

Some reports warned that Biden’s campaign expected to raise only 25 percent of the donor money it had originally projected to collect in July.

Harris, whose image was already being boosted by the media several days ago, issued a statement following the news in which she said she was «honoured to have the president’s endorsement and I intend to win this nomination».

«Over the past year, I have travelled across the country, talking to Americans about this momentous election,» said the vice president, who pledged to do «everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party – and unite our nation – to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme agenda of Project 2025».

«We have 107 days until Election Day. Together we will fight and together we will win,» he concluded.

Trump accepted his party’s nomination on 18 July in his closing speech at the Republican National Convention. In his opinion, Biden is the «worst president by far in the history of our country» and as for Harris, he considered that if she were his opponent, he would defeat her more easily.

The Republican duo is complete. Trump’s vice presidential pick is Ohio Senator JD Vance. Both will now wait for the Democratic pairing to be recomposed.

Biden will finish his term in January 2025 and with it a political life of more than half a century.

On 28 June, after the presidential debate with Trump, a headline in The New York Times suggested: ‘Biden should get out of the presidential race for the sake of American democracy’.

Days later, in the same newspaper, Clooney said: «We’re not going to win in November with this president. Besides, we won’t win the House of Representatives and we’ll lose the Senate.

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