US President Joe Biden has formally withdrawn from the presidential contest and backed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.
In a statement, Biden stated, “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President, 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 made the statement shortly after declaring he would not run for reelection because of health issues and a recent COVID-19 diagnosis.
“My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My 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.
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“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. Let’s do this,” Biden said in a statement on X.
Not too long after his first presidential debate against former President Donald Trump, Biden announced his departure from the contest. Many Democratic leaders and fundraisers saw Joe Biden’s shaky and slow performance in the June debate as a disaster, which led to a barrage of demands for the 81-year-old politician to resign and not seek reelection.
Afterwards this week, Biden plans to “speak to the Nation” in further depth on my choice. He also stated that he will serve out the balance of his term.
Harris, who will be Biden’s running partner in 2024, is set up to take over Biden’s position on the ticket and handle the majority of his infrastructure and resources.
In his remarks, Biden praised the achievements of his administration during the previous three and a half years and expressed gratitude to Harris for being “an extraordinary partner in all this work.”
“Together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We’ve protected and preserved our Democracy. And we’ve revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.”
Delegates to the Democratic National Convention are now free to vote for other candidates because Biden resigned before they were scheduled to cast their ballots in a virtual roll call.
Biden’s choice to forego seeking the Democratic nominee for president has twice opened the door for female Democrats to challenge Trump head-to-head. Trump beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, making history as the first female presidential contender from a major party. Biden had opted not to run. With just four months till Election Day, Biden now hands the reins to Harris to take on Trump.
Should Harris win the nomination as the Democratic nominee, she would undoubtedly come under even more rigorous scrutiny as the Democrats consider their options.
When Harris, a Black and Indian-American, assumed office in 2021, she made history as the first female vice president and person of colour.
In her bid to become the first female presidential candidate of colour, Harris is a former senator from the United States and the attorney general of California. Following Barack Obama, Harris would be the second Black and multiracial president and the first person of Asian origin.
Her father, Donald Harris, is an economist, and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, is a biologist and cancer researcher. Harris,59, was born in Oakland, California. Her undergraduate studies were at Howard University, and she thereafter graduated with a law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.
In under 20 years, Harris ascended from a small-town prosecutor to the position of vice president. She started her career as an employee of the district attorneys’ offices in Alameda and San Francisco, and in 2003 she was elected to the position of district attorney for San Francisco. In addition to winning the 2010 California attorney general election, she also successfully sought and was elected in 2016 to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by retiring Senator Barbara Boxer. Harris was chosen by Biden to be his running partner in 2020.
Voting rights and tackling the underlying reasons of migration from the Northern Triangle Region of Central America are two of Harris’s portfolio items in the vice president’s office. These are notoriously challenging policy issues for Democrats, and the White House has not made much progress on them.
With her unwavering devotion to Biden’s programme, Harris is now positioned to emerge as the Democratic Party’s front-runner for the 2024 presidential nomination.
In recent weeks, her candidature has gathered a lot of traction, with many characterising her as Biden’s “natural heir.”
