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Bowing to withering pressure from within his party – and the weight of dismal polling numbers – incumbent U.S. president Joe Biden ended his 2024 reelection bid on Saturday (July 21, 2024).
“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 focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote in a letter to the country announcing the abandonment of his candidacy.
The 81-year-old Democrat posted the letter on social media with just 106 days to go before the November election, promising to “speak to the nation later this week in more detail about my decision.”
While giving up his 2024 campaign against GOP nominee Donald Trump, Biden said he would remain in office for the duration of his term – a decision which drew criticism from Trump and other Republicans.
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— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
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Of interest? Biden’s withdrawal letter did not endorse vice president Kamala Harris as his preferred successor for the Democratic presidential nomination. However, a subsequent statement issued from their joint campaign did endorse her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” Biden wrote on X. “Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
Harris responded by saying she was “honored to have the president’s endorsement” and that her intention was “to earn and win this nomination.”
“With this selfless and patriotic act, president Biden is doing what he has done throughout his life of service: putting the American people and our country above everything else,” Harris added. “Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead. I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”
While Democrats sought to unify against Trump, Republicans pounced on Biden’s decision to remain in office despite his clear lack of fitness for the role – which was painfully put on display during a debate with the former president last month.
“If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining president?” U.S. senator and GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance wrote on X earlier in the day. “Not running for reelection would be a clear admission that president Trump was right all along about Biden not being mentally fit enough to serve as Commander-in-Chief. There is no middle ground.”
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U.S. senator Josh Hawley of Missouri concurred.
“If you can’t run a mere political campaign, you can’t be president,” Hawley wrote on X in the aftermath of Biden’s announcement.
In a statement posted to his Truth Social platform, Trump blasted Biden for his unfitness to serve – but also assailed the mainstream media (a.k.a. “fake news”) for its role in elevating him to the presidency.
“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for president, and is certainly not fit to serve – and never was!” Trump wrote. “He only attained the position of president by lies, fake news, and not leaving his basement. All those around him, including his doctor and the media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being president, and he wasn’t – and now, look what he’s done to our country, with millions of people coming across our border, totally unchecked and unvetted, many from prisons, mental institutions, and record numbers of terrorists. We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly.”
Trump’s campaign issued its own statement shortly thereafter calling Biden “a complete fraud and a disgrace to our country.”
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Crooked Joe Biden is a complete fraud and a disgrace to our Country.
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) July 21, 2024
Biden has left our borders wide open, allowing up to 20 million illegal aliens to enter the United States, creating a Biden Migrant Crime Wave and taxing precious resources.
Biden has taken our once-great…
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At the time of his exit from the race, Trump was leading Biden in multiple critical battleground states including Arizona (+7.7), Georgia (+4.4), Michigan (+1.8), Nevada (+5), Pennsylvania (+3.8) and Wisconsin (+3.3). All of those are states Biden won in 2020.
Expect a slew of polls to be fielded in the coming days testing Trump against Harris – and a horde of other Democratic hopefuls. Also, expect Democrats to avail themselves of the tabula rasa they have been given to try and choose the ticket that maximizes their chance of overcoming Trump’s swing state lead.
Clearly, Biden was not a part of that calculus.
In the aftermath of his debate debacle last month, Biden found himself at the center of a “soft coup” – a relentless campaign waged by Democratic insiders and liberal donors aimed at booting him from the 2024 ticket. The precise mechanics of his ouster are not immediately known, but news leaked late last week that a deal had been struck.
Per that agreement, Biden would agree to drop his reelection bid and endorse Harris on the way out. Then, allegedly, word got back to Biden that former president Barack Obama had turned on him – which caused the incumbent to back off of the deal and dig his heels in deeper than ever.
Obama, incidentally, issued a statement following Biden’s announcement calling him “a dear friend and partner to me” as well as “a patriot of the first order.”
This is a breaking news story based on the latest information available. Stay with FITSNews for updates …
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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28 comments
WOW !!
Harris is the natural and by all rights the only individual who should be the Dems replacement for Biden as their candidate for Pres .
Black people across this nation will be furious and raise hell if anyone other than Harris is the Dems choice .
If Dems replace her on the ticket with any white individual there will be a lot of problems across our nation .
If fear this situation will continue to spin out of control with the potential for violent riots and protest .
This will make the outrage over the death of George Floyd look like a Pie Competition at the State Fair !
Hope I’m wrong !!
Dims will replace her, she may be “on deck” but she’s unelectable. She can’t string together a coherent paragraph and doesn’t have dementia as an excuse.
So you admit Trump has dementia.
After that snooze fest of incoherent blabber and tons of lies, that was Trump nomination speech.
Kamala already was on a winning ticket against Trump.
In any case, keep projecting trump and his followers behavior on Democrats. It’s good for people to see how clueless you MAGA diehards remain ;-)
I would mention that Trump talks like a five-year old, but that’s disparaging to five-year olds.
It’s telling that Republicans think voters won’t find Kamala as presidential material when she’s spent nearly 4 years now a heartbeat away from the presidency. Kamala was never a liability in that election – sorry, that dubious distinction belongs to the likes of Sarah Palin. : )
It must be hard for you guys to comprehend since, y’know, some of you conservatives wanted Trump’s VP dead on January 6th.
Well I for one will now be watching the Democratic National Convention. Maybe they should just broadcast it on Comedy Central.
It Ought to be an extra large clown car!
The Dunning-Kruger is strong with these Trumptards.
I would expect nothing less ;-)
Sorry. No Hulk Hogan or Kid Rock will be there. No grown men wearing maxi-pads on their ears or wearing diapers in support of the demented old pants shitter, Trump.
You might want to watch the movie Idiocracy, if want to revisit the feeling you got from the RNC convention ;-)
“or wearing diapers”… so they’re not going to invite Joe?
lol
“ If fear this situation will continue to spin out of control with the potential for violent riots and protest .”
You mean like all the Republican losers on Jan 6th 2021 going rabid and and acting like animals?
Maybe you can keep your fellow domestic terrorists in check after losing two elections in a row?
He should have announced it during Trump’s unhinged RNC coronation speech the other night and every network would have dumped Trump off the air.
Unlikely, it would have probably just been run ticker tape style along the bottom… like the emergency broadcast system test.
Like everything else that has come out of the White House this past two years, he did not write that announcement, just like he doesn’t write any of the tweets or social media posts. He’s going to be pissed when Jill tells him what he did… it’ll be like Abraham Lincoln the morning after the big Emancipation speech and bender, “I did what?!?!?”.
No. I was important for as many people as possible to see what a mushed brain idiot Trump is without the media protecting.
The whole RNC convention was a massive joke and all the world hit a good laugh.
I just heard this news and laughed. The only person that the Democrats can put up is Cackles, and what sane potential person would put their political career on the line to be her running mate? Democratic Underground has gone into “members only” mode once again, the last time was right after the debate. That site has to be completely in chaos, they’re out of their mind normally, now they actually have something to be going nuts about. They can’t put anyone up except for Cackles unless she refuses to run, and we all know she won’t not run to be the first female President of this country. The only person who could help her is Newsome, and he can’t be her running mate unless the DNC wants to give up the California electoral college votes. Any of the other names suggested likely are planning on running in 2028 and don’t want their name associated with Walter Mondale 2.0. If the DNC had any brains they’d just save everyone time and money and just forfeit the 2024 election.
Yes……the Trumptards are already losing their collective pea brain over Pres Kamala.
Now you’re stuck with a dementia patient with dozens of felonies. Good luck with that;-)
Has anyone checked on Brad Warthen? He talks Joe Biden up like a 12 year old girl talks about Taylor Swift… probably even has a post of Joe tacked up in his bedroom.
lol
Wait till you watch the RNC convention speakers!
Talk about 12 year old girls talking about Taylor Swift (those girls are in their 30s now. Try and keep up). An entire political party is dedicated to sucking trumps dick. You included. So weird and gross.
“Wait till you watch the RNC convention speakers!” Are they planning on rerunning it?
Is it any different than an entire political party dedicated to sucking Big Mike’s dick? You included. So weird and gross. He’s the only one polled that can beat Trump at this point. But he’s not interested and it’s too much work per his own words. Why work when you can sit back and make more money having people film you and write books about you. Then there’s that whole thesis thing about him talking about how he hates America.
lol
Republicans are panicking. They are left with an incoherent, dementia ridden, diaper wearing dolt….and JD Vance.
When you see the two of them together, it looks like Trump is spending time with his chubby little great-nephew on another trip to McDonalds.
Most importantly, Trump’s favorite people to praise are panicking in Russia, China and North Korea.
True Democrats would replace “LOL” with “CACKLE”.
Democrats were robbed of a robust primary thanks to Biden begrudgingly taking his leave at the last possible moment. That being said if Kamala can’t win this, Biden wouldn’t have either.
Democrats are doomed to repeat the same lesson as long as these ancient skeletons keep their bony digits firmly grasped on the reigns of power. If you can’t leave it up to the next generation to carry the torch your legacy will just crumble and fade with you.
Speaking of old farts past their prime, I guess now Trump is the retirement home reject we have to hope doesn’t replace the current one.
The RNC was full of American patriots to include decorated war veterans and everyone was giving God praise. Bet the DNC has no veterans and nobody praising our Lord Jesus and no patriots.
Bet the DNC’s candidate will not be a person who called our war-dead losers and suckers, insulted the hero’s buried at Arlington Cemetery, and who doesn’t like former POWs because they were captured.
Joe… Joe is that you? It sounds like you but I’m not sure… you didn’t mention Beau when talking about war heroes.
Biden’s withdrawal from the race doesn’t change the fact that Trump is a grifter, a pathological liar, and a school yard bully.
Also, a convicted felon.
… and still leading in the polls even with the Democrat candidate swap. Who still isn’t guaranteed the candidacy. Ol’ Enos was stuttering and stammering more than normal on WIS tonight. Saying that if this isn’t locked up by the beginning of the convention that all hell will break loose on the convention floor.
I don’t understand this idoltry of Trump. He’s turned the Repun Party into the Cult of Trump.
Squishy,
When you bow down to kiss his gold ring, he’s sure to steal the money you’re carrying.