President Joe Biden abandoned his campaign for a second term under intense pressure from fellow Democrats on Sunday, upending the race for the White House in a dramatic last-minute bid to find a new candidate who can stop former President Donald Trump from returning to the White House.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he said in a letter posted on social media. “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.”

Biden Thanks Harris

Biden, who evidently plans to serve out his term through January even as he pulls out as a candidate, said he would “speak to the nation later this week in more detail about my decision” and expressed thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris “for being an extraordinary partner in all this work.” But he did not immediately endorse her and said nothing about how the Democratic Party should proceed to pick a new nominee.

One person informed about the matter said the president had told his senior staff at 1:45 p.m. that he had changed his mind, an announcement that surprised many aides who had been told as recently as Saturday night that his campaign was still full speed ahead. It was not immediately clear whether he wrote the letter himself or had help, nor did his aides know when or how he might address the nation.

Related Story: President Joe Biden Drops Out of the 2024 Presidential Race

The president’s decision set the stage for an intense, abbreviated scramble to build a new Democratic ticket, the first time in generations that a nomination will be settled at a convention rather than through primaries. Although he did not endorse Harris, she starts the truncated process in the strongest position but could face challenges from other Democrats.

While Biden has six more months in office, the transition of the campaign to whomever is chosen will amount to a momentous generational change of leadership of the Democratic Party. The eventual nominee will have just more than 75 days after next month’s convention to consolidate support from Democrats, establish themselves as a credible national leader and prosecute the case against the Republican former president.

Biden Announces Withdrawal

Biden, 81, announced his withdrawal after a disastrous debate performance against Trump cemented public concerns about his age and touched off widespread panic among Democrats about his ability to prevent the former president from reclaiming power. Democratic congressional leaders petrified by dismal poll numbers pressed Biden to gracefully exit, angry donors threatened to withhold their money, and down-ballot candidates feared he would take down the whole ticket.

No sitting president has dropped out of a race so late in the election cycle in U.S. history, and Harris and any other contenders for the nomination will have just weeks to earn the backing of the nearly 4,000 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. While the convention is scheduled to take place in Chicago from Aug. 19 to Aug. 22, the party had already planned to conduct a virtual roll call vote before Aug. 7 to ensure access to ballots in all 50 states, leaving little time to assemble support.

Biden’s campaign for a second term collapsed in swift and stunning fashion after leading Democrats concluded that he would be unable to defeat Trump in the fall. During their nationally televised debate last month, Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history, appeared frail, hesitant, confused and diminished, losing a critical opportunity to make his case against Trump, a felon who tried to overturn the last election.

Trump Came Across as Forceful

Although Trump, 78, is just a few years younger than Biden, he came across as forceful at the debate even as he made repeated false and misleading statements. Questions have been raised about Trump’s own cognitive decline. He often rambles incoherently in interviews and at campaign rallies and has confused names, dates and facts just as Biden has. But Republicans have not turned against him as Democrats did against Biden.

The president’s age was a primary concern of voters long before the debate. Even most Democrats told pollsters more than a year ago that they thought he was too old for the job. Born during World War II and first elected to the Senate in 1972 before two-thirds of today’s Americans were even born, Biden would have been 86 at the end of a second term.

Biden consistently maintained that his experience was an advantage, enabling him to pass landmark legislation and manage foreign policy crises. He maintained that he was the Democrat best equipped to defeat Trump given that he did so in 2020.

But his efforts to reassure Democrats that he was up to the task following the damaging debate failed to shore up support. Instead, his slowness to reach out to party leaders and some of the answers he gave in interviews only fueled internal discontent.

In bowing out, Biden became the first incumbent president in 56 years to give up a chance to run again. With six months remaining in his term, his decision instantly transformed him into a lame duck. But he can be expected to use his remaining time in office to try to consolidate gains on domestic policy and manage ongoing wars in Europe and the Middle East.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Peter Baker/Doug Mills
c.2024 The New York Times Company