Biden Drops Out
The Oasis Reporters
July 24, 2024
Glenn Boyce and his family show support for U.S. President Joe Biden after he announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race outside the White House in Washington on July 21. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
By FP
U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he was ending his reelection bid, sending shock waves through Washington and leaving the Democratic Party scrambling to pick a new candidate ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden wrote 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.”
In a subsequent post on X, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him and urged his party to “come together and beat [Donald] Trump.”
https://x.com/JoeBiden/status/1815087772216303933
Harris, who was informed of the president’s decision on Sunday, said she was “honored” to have his backing and that her intention was to “earn and win this nomination” at the Democratic National Convention, which is set to take place on Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
“We have 107 days until Election Day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win,” Harris said in her full statement.
The president’s abrupt announcement came following weeks of mounting pressure from within his own party for him to reconsider running for the White House again as concerns over his health and ability to govern grew after his debate performance last month.
At the time of the announcement, Biden, 81, was at his beach house in Delaware, isolating and recovering from COVID-19.
The news also reverberated around the globe, with U.S. allies and adversaries alike reacting to the sudden change in the U.S. domestic political landscape just a few months before an election that holds significant stakes for geopolitics.
World leaders including newly elected British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed their respect and admiration for the U.S. president, who was a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and saw the onset of wars in Europe and the Middle East as president.
“We will always be thankful for President Biden’s leadership,” Zelensky wrote on X. “He supported our country during the most dramatic moment in history, assisted us in preventing Putin from occupying our country, and has continued to support us throughout this terrible war.”
Leaders of other close U.S. allies in Europe expressed similar sentiments about the president, who has devoted much of his time in the White House to rebuilding and strengthening America’s alliances abroad after they were shaken by his predecessor, Trump. “Joe Biden has achieved a lot: for his country, for Europe, for the world,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X. “His decision not to run again deserves respect.”
Also on X, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote that Biden had made difficult decisions “thanks to which Poland, America and the world are safer, and democracy stronger.”
U.S. allies in Asia were more circumspect, emphasizing the importance of their countries’ relationships with the United States rather than with Biden himself.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s office said it would “continue to work closely with the U.S. to further develop the South Korea-U.S. global comprehensive strategic alliance.”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he recognized that “Biden’s decision is based on his desire to make the best possible political decision,” adding that the “Japan-U.S. alliance is the cornerstone of our nation’s diplomatic security, and we will continue to monitor it closely.”
U.S. adversaries, meanwhile, had their own thoughts about the situation. Russia used the moment as an opportunity to take a dig at the United States, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying that Moscow was “not too surprised” by Biden’s withdrawal.
“In recent years, what has been happening in the United States has taught us not to be surprised by anything,” Peskov told reporters on Monday. “This topic should concern American voters but not us,” he said, adding that “what is very important for us is the future of Russian-American relations, which are now experiencing the worst period in history.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping has so far stayed silent on Biden’s withdrawal from the race, and a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said only that the “presidential election is an internal affair of the United States.”
However, Chinese state media outlets including Xinhua and Global Times covered the story, and the news sparked much conversation on Chinese social media: On Weibo, the entry “Biden withdrew from the election” attracted more than 400 million views and tens of thousands of comments, Voice of America reported.
Many Chinese social media users expressed the sentiment that the shake-up at the top of the Democratic Party’s ticket mattered little. “Because Trump’s personality is so outstanding, [American] voters are now divided into two groups: Trump lovers & Trump haters,” former Global Times editor Hu Xijin posted on X. “So the choice seems to be: Trump, or anyone.”
For further reading:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/07/21/biden-drops-out-us-elections-kamala-harris-trump
©Foreign Policy
