2024-07-22 20:00:12
“He’s really angry,” a person in contact with Mr. Biden’s relatives told Sky News.
As angry as he was — and still is — Mr. Biden has grudgingly admitted he can’t sustain his campaign as poll numbers plummet, supporters flee and party luminaries push him out. He may have been slower than other Democrats to make that calculation, but he got it right Saturday night.
In separate phone calls on Sunday, Mr. Biden told his vice president, Kamala Harris, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and his campaign chairman, Jen O’Malley Dillon, that he would drop his candidacy.
That he had to inform them in this way underscored how much his circle has narrowed in recent days to family members and a few longtime aides and advisers — Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, Anthony Bernal and Annie Tomasini.
The result may not have surprised White House and campaign officials, but the timing did.
Most, like the rest of the world, learned of the withdrawal when Mr. Biden posted his post on X. The same goes for Democratic National Committee officials and state party chairs.
Mr. Biden’s senior aides tried to set up separate meetings to talk to White House and campaign staff. It wanted to reassure political aides that their jobs were secure.
An abrupt end
Mr. Biden’s career ended abruptly. However, this was influenced by June 27. the most disastrous debate performance in modern American political history.
Mr. Biden has failed to placate his fellow Democrats, or at least enough of them, to make further public appearances.
Major backers cut off support for his campaign and party. Elected officials began urging him to drop the offer. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, known as the godmother of the Democratic Party, said he still has a decision to make after insisting he chose to stay in the race.
He spoke with Pelosi on Saturday, CNBC reported, but her office denied the conversation, citing a person with direct knowledge of their communications. Pelosi, whose closest allies have publicly called for him to drop out of the race, declined to comment.
Mr. Biden met with longtime aides and advisers
Senior aides to Mr. Biden had expected Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both Democrats from New York, to likely publicly call for him to step down after a meeting this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr. Biden also met with Mr. Donilon and Mr. Ricchetti on Saturday. They discussed “just about everything,” sources said, including dismal polls in battleground states and his potential path forward. However, two trusted aides did not make any recommendations as to what he should do.
They believed that Mr. Biden had already made up his mind to leave and that this debate only cemented his decision. However, they all chose not to react to it for now.
Mr. Biden “felt the pressure”
They met again on Sunday morning, planning everything incredibly carefully to avoid any leaks.
On Thursday, former White House chief of staff Ron Klein, who wanted Mr. Biden to stand firm, said Mr. Biden was “feeling the pressure.” As of Friday night, he was still undecided, according to one person close to his inner circle.
His friends told him he was risking his influence. As someone who defeated Trump and passed a number of important pieces of legislation, he could quickly become a scapegoat if the Democrats get ripped off in November.
He still believed, at least until this weekend, that he could win again. In 2020, he had promised to be a bridge candidate. Ultimately, he didn’t want to be a bridge between two Trump terms.
“It’s become a disaster, a self-fulfilling prophecy,” former White House official Cedric Richmond, who co-chaired Biden’s 2020 campaign, said on Sunday. When the money runs out and elected officials gain support, “it’s impossible to win, and he always puts the country and the party first.”
Statement and consequences
By the time Mr. Biden scheduled a call with his entire team of senior advisers on Sunday, an official statement announcing his decision had already been written.
A minute later, his X account posted this statement, telling the public that he would continue in office but hand over his party’s nomination.
He later endorsed Harris and blessed her as the best choice to beat Trump in the four-month sprint to Election Day.
Sources said Mr. Biden made 40 to 50 calls Sunday night about his decision.
Mr. Biden asked to see Harris’ poll data
In recent days, amid growing calls for his resignation, Mr. Biden has asked to see the results of a poll on how Harris would fare in a hypothetical fight against Mr. Trump, according to two people familiar with the matter.
They said he also looked at public polls because he wanted to know more about her position against Trump.
The results of the poll were kept very private and were made available only to a handful of top campaign aides, including Mr. Donilon and Mr. O’Malley Dillon, two people familiar with the matter said.
Mr. Biden’s call appeared to be driven entirely by political factors rather than concerns about his health or ability to do his job. A senior administration official stressed that there was no new medical information to inform Mr. Biden’s decision, although he himself recently said he might reconsider his candidacy if “some medical condition” arose.
“If the doctors came to me and said you have this problem, that problem,” Mr. Biden raised in an interview that aired last week.
Although his doctor has been monitoring Mr. Biden for a COVID-19 diagnosis and conducting related blood tests in recent days, Mr. Biden has not had any extensive tests or medical examinations in recent days, the official said. His last comprehensive physical was in February.
By confirming that he would remain in office, Mr. Biden made it clear that he was not worried about his ability to carry out his duties as president.
Reluctance to answer
Democrats across the country scrambled to react and prepare for a future without Mr. Biden as their nominee in the minutes and hours after his announcement.
In Minnesota, Democratic Party Chairman Ken Martin was hosting an open house for Mr. Biden in Minneapolis when he heard the news. In Illinois, a delegate received a phone call from Mr. Biden’s campaign asking if Mr. Biden would still support the congressional vote.
The news of Mr. Biden’s departure came just an hour later.
When he found out, Mr. Martin contacted the chairmen of the other state parties and advocated the next step: to take a unified position in the party and support Ms. Harris for president.
“Everyone I’ve talked to right now agrees that we need to come together quickly,” said Martin, who held a conference call with party leaders on Sunday afternoon. – The idea of turning the conversation inside out for four weeks does not appeal to me. The sooner we can unite our party behind a candidate, the sooner we can start the campaign.”
An integral member of Mr. Biden’s re-election team found out after a family member read a news alert. The person noted that everyone around Mr. Biden was surprised, especially after some of Mr. Biden’s closest allies pushed for his candidacy on Sunday’s appearances.
“No one knew. Even Kamala (Harris – aut.post.) didn’t know,” said one person.
Harris has the support of top Democrats
Harris made her own call on Sunday as many party leaders scrambled to make sure there were few obstacles to her winning the nomination.
In addition to Mr. Biden, she received endorsements from former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, who was the party’s 2016 presidential nominee.
Several prominent Democratic governors, including California’s Gavin Newsom and Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, both considered possible future presidential candidates, expressed their support for Ms. Harris on Sunday.
Mr. Biden did not want Mr. Harris to experience the same betrayal he felt as vice president when President Barack Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton over him. This explains why he quickly sent a signal to the rest of the party that she was his choice.
“There are people who don’t want it. The president understands how that feels,” said a Biden ally, “and that’s why he did the faithful thing.”
Even as they began laying the groundwork for Harris to take over Mr. Biden’s campaign, many Biden loyalists in Washington on Sunday were still questioning how their party was treating him.
“Here is a man who has always talked about dignity,” said a longtime Biden ally. – And what happened to him in public was completely out of character. Where should the president go to regain his dignity?’
Prepared from Sky News inf.
2024-07-22 20:00:12