Biden drops out of 2024 presidential election, endorses Kamala Harris as Democratic nominee

PUBLISHED SUN, JUL 21 20241:53 PM CNBC

President Joe Biden on Sunday dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s nominee, bowing to weeks of growing pressure by his own party members to quit his re-election bid against former President Donald Trump.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden wrote in a post on the social media site X.

“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 wrote.

“I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision,” wrote Biden, whose bombshell decision came after a sharp spike in recent days in the number of congressional Democrats publicly calling for him to step aside for another nominee.

Biden in a subsequent tweet wrote that his “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,” Biden wrote.

Such endorsements do not make Harris the presidential nominee — the new nominee will be officially chosen by the thousands of delegates attending the Democratic National Convention beginning August 19. But if such endorsements keep piling up, they may deter any other prominent Democrats from challenging Harris and make her nomination all-but-assured.