Source of the image, Getty Images
- Author, Courtney Subramanian
- Role, BBC News, from Washington, United States
Senior staff from the White House and Joe Biden’s campaign spent the last week insisting that the president planned to stay in the race despite a flood of requests from within the Democratic Party for him to withdraw.
Last Saturday (July 20), the president’s advisors prepared a schedule for Biden to restart the campaign as soon as he returned to the White House the following week.
The president has been recovering from COVID-19 at his home on the eastern shores of Delaware. From there, he had persisted in his effort to seek re-election but became enraged when coordinated pressures from some Democrats to step aside began to come to light.
Thus, by Sunday morning (July 21), the president had changed his mind, according to sources who were granted anonymity to speak frankly about how events unfolded.
A day earlier, on Saturday night, Biden began to consider whether he should withdraw, one of the toughest decisions of his 50 years in politics.
He met with a small circle of aides, including Steve Richetti, one of his closest advisors, Mike Donilon, his chief strategist, Annie Tomasini, his deputy chief of staff, and Anthony Bernal, the chief of staff for First Lady Jill Biden.
Source of the image, Getty Images
Steve Richetti, who has worked with Joe Biden since his Senate days, headed to the president’s beach house on Friday.
Mike Donilon, another aide who has played a key role in some of the president’s most important policy decisions, joined him on Saturday.
Biden and his advisors analyzed new polling data and debated whether he would be able to defeat Donald Trump in the current political landscape.
Faced with new information—and preparing for another week of further public defections within the party—the president had to make a decision.
He worked with Donilon to draft the historic public statement that would end his candidacy, while Richetti considered the details of how to disseminate the announcement and inform the rest of the staff.
Joe Biden made the final decision to withdraw on Sunday morning, at which point he separately called his chief of staff Jeff Zients, his campaign director Jen O’Malley Dillon, and Vice President Kamala Harris to inform them, sources familiar with the developments told the BBC.
At 1:45 PM (local time) on Sunday, the president held a video call with his top staff in the White House and in the campaign, including Anita Dunn, who manages his communications strategy.
A minute later, he issued the public statement that sent shockwaves through the American political landscape and dramatically changed the 2024 election.
“He assured that he had been contemplating it for the past few days,” a senior White House official told the BBC.
“It was a very well-thought-out decision,” they added.
Source of the image, Getty Images
Although Biden did not mention Kamala Harris in his initial statement, he endorsed her in a post on the social media platform X (Twitter) that was disseminated about half an hour later.
The two spoke several times throughout the day leading up to the announcement, according to two sources familiar with the conversations.
The First Lady, Jill Biden, who is the president’s closest advisor and whose counsel is seen as pivotal to his decision, publicly stated that she supported his withdrawal from the re-election race.
“Until the last hours of a decision that only he could make, she supported whatever path he chose,” said Elizabeth Alexander, the First Lady’s communications director.
“She is the person who believes in him the most, his advocate, and always stands by him in a way that only a wife of nearly 50 years can do,” she added.
Many in the White House and the campaign were not informed ahead of time about Biden’s plans.
Most learned of it through the social media post.
Jeff Zients, the president’s chief of staff, held a phone call with White House officials and sent an email to all staff in the West Wing (where the president’s offices are located) to confirm the announcement and thank them for their hard work.
He also led a phone call with the president’s cabinet secretaries.
Source of the image, Getty Images
Meanwhile, Biden spoke with several Democrats in Congress, governors, and supporters, according to a statement from the White House. His plan is to continue making calls in the coming hours, according to the statement.
Kamala Harris, who said her intention is to “earn and win” the presidential nomination, spent Sunday afternoon speaking with lawmakers, including Democratic Minority Leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, other key party officials, and governors to shore up support for her candidacy.
Although she has already won the support of the president and top Democrats, her rise to the top of the ticket is not assured until delegates vote to confirm who will replace Biden in the presidential race.
The voting will take place at the Democratic National Convention in August.
It is noteworthy that former President Barack Obama has not explicitly endorsed her, while Bill and Hillary Clinton have.
While many were still digesting Biden’s announcement, on a call held Sunday afternoon, which included Biden’s presidential campaign team, senior officials said they would be “full speed ahead” behind the vice president.
“All of you, all of us, wherever we come from, are here to support Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and to defeat Donald Trump,” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, the campaign director, according to a source familiar with the call.
“And while today is a big day of transition, nothing changes about why we are here.”
“But the path ahead is a path we must all walk together,” she concluded.
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