Biden's decision to withdraw was made on Sunday, and his staff knew about it a minute before the public did.
WASHINGTON: At 1:45 p.m. Sunday, President Joe Biden’s top staff was notified that he was withdrawing from the 2024 race. At 1:46 p.m., the message was made public.
Biden had no intention of dropping out of the race. He put everything on the line before deciding to step down on Sunday.
His campaign was planning fundraisers and events and traveling in the coming weeks. But even as Biden publicly insisted he would stay in the race, he was quietly reflecting on the calamity of the past few weeks, the past three years of his presidency, and the scope of his half-century career in politics.
Ultimately, the decision was made by the president alone, and he made it quietly while he was sick with COVID-19 at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The first lady was with him as he spoke to a small group of people who had been with him for decades.
“This is probably one of the hardest decisions he’s ever had to make,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, the president’s closest ally in Congress, told The Associated Press when speaking with him Sunday. “I know he wanted to fight and show that he could continue to beat Donald Trump again, but as I’ve heard more and more, it seems like he was thinking about what’s best for the country,” Coons told The Associated Press.
This article is based on interviews with more than a dozen people who knew the president’s thinking as he made his decisions in the past weeks, days and hours. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss their private discussions.
Decide to quit racing
It wasn’t until Saturday evening that Biden began to conclude that he would not run for reelection. He began writing a letter to the American people.
Biden had been quarantined due to COVID-19 and had not campaigned for several days, and everything was starting to sink in. Not to mention the fact that his chances of beating Donald Trump were getting slimmer as many in his own party openly rebelled and tried to knock him out of the race, and the constant concerns voters had about his age were exacerbated by the disastrous debates.
Biden stayed at the beach house with his and Jill Biden's closest aides: chief strategist Mike Donilon, presidential adviser Steve Ricchetti, White House deputy chief of staff Annie Tommasini and Anthony Bernal, a senior adviser to the first lady.
By Sunday, his decision was set. He had spoken several times to Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he was supporting. He informed White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and his longtime aide and campaign chair, Jen O’Malley Dillon.
A small group of campaign and White House senior advisers met on a conference call at 1:45 p.m. to relay Biden’s decision, and his campaign staff shared the announcement on social media a minute later.
“Serving as President has been the greatest honor of my life. While it was my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and my country for me to step aside and focus solely on my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote.
About 30 minutes later, his public endorsement of Harris was a carefully choreographed strategy to give the president’s initial statement enough weight and to put a stop to the moment before moving on.
“Today, I want to express my full support and endorsement of Kamala to be our party’s nominee this year,” Biden said in another post on X. “Democrats, it’s time to unite and beat Trump.”
“Up until the last decision he could make, she supported the path he chose,” said Elizabeth Alexander, Biden’s communications director.
“She is my husband’s biggest advocate and is always by his side,” Alexander said. “That’s the kind of trust that only a spouse of nearly 50 years can have.”
About the discussion
Things weren’t all that smooth sailing before the June 27 debate. In an August 2023 poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 77% of American adults said Biden was too old to be effective for another four years. Eighty-nine percent of Republicans said the same, as did 69% of Democrats.
By April, things had not improved, with more than half of American adults saying they believed Biden’s presidency had hurt the country, with issues such as the cost of living and immigration.
But Biden argued to himself, to the country, to his supporters, that if he went out there and talked to people about his record, explained it to them, talked to them, looked them in the eye, he could win over voters.
He has learned from a lifetime of experience that if he sticks to it, he can win. In fact, his campaign was so confident that it bypassed the presidential debate commission and staged a series of showdowns with Trump under new rules.
That led to the June 27 debate that sparked Biden’s downfall, in which he gave nonsensical answers, interrupted himself mid-sentence, and seemed to stare blankly before an audience of 51 million. Perhaps most troubling to other Democrats was that Biden did not condemn Trump’s numerous lies about the violence surrounding the January 6, 2021 riots, abortion rights, or immigration.
Biden and his team have blamed that night for a number of different reasons. He had a cold. He was jet-lagged. He needed more sleep. That night opened the door for his party to push him out.
slow acceptance
Biden fought publicly and privately to remain in the race. He tried to convince voters that he could do the job for the next four years. He was frustrated that Democrats were publicly opposing him, but he was even more upset by leaks and anonymous sources claiming that even former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were trying to get him to step down.
He appeared to have won twice. The chorus of opponents seemed to have died down. He had a day marked by a mix of well-received speeches and mediocre TV interviews, and long press conferences that showed a nuanced understanding of policy but also included a few suffocating mistakes.
But the doubts did not go away.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer eventually invited Biden’s top staff to a meeting on July 11 to discuss their concerns. It didn’t go well. Senators voiced their concerns, and almost none said they had confidence in the president. But even then, Schumer worried that it wouldn’t get to Biden.
After the meeting, Schumer called House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and former President Obama. Schumer decided to request a meeting with Biden that day.
At a meeting in Rehoboth on July 13, Schumer told Biden he came with love and affection, and he delivered a personal appeal that focused on Biden’s legacy, the future of the country, and the impact that the top of the ticket could have on congressional races. And how it could affect the Supreme Court. That same day, there was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Schumer told the president that he did not expect an immediate decision but hoped Biden would think about what he said, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
“We need one more week,” Biden responded, and the two men hugged.
Sunday's decision
It was going full steam ahead until Biden hit the emergency brake.
The president had lost his voice, but he was recovering well, and his doctor sent the public an update on his condition just before 1 p.m. His small circle decided to post a statement on X on Sunday to prevent it from leaking out in the coming days before he was ready to address the nation early this week.
Much of his campaign was left unguarded, and it was clear how little had changed since his withdrawal. For hours after the announcement, Biden’s campaign website reflected that he was still running, and KamalaHarris.com still redirected to Biden’s page.
Harris's statement announcing her intention to succeed Biden as president also meant “Joe Biden for President.”
After the public announcement, Zients spoke to senior staff, emailed and spoke to members of Biden’s Cabinet, emphasizing that nothing had changed on the administration’s business and that the administration still had much work to do. The president also made personal calls, according to two people familiar with the messages.
“Dear team, I wanted to make sure you saw the attached letter from the President,” Zients wrote in a staff email. “I am so proud to serve President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the American people. Together, you make the greatest White House team in history. There is so much to do. As President Biden said, ‘There is nothing America cannot do together.’”
Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat who had called for Biden to step down, was gardening with his wife when the news broke and said he was “stunned” for a moment. Senators texted each other, wondering if this was really happening.
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he attended an event in his state where the crowd erupted in spontaneous applause when Biden announced he would not run.
Blumenthal said there was excitement and energy in the crowd that was “totally lacking.”
“Honestly, there was a sense of relief,” he said. “And there was also a sense of respect for Joe Biden.”
By Sunday evening, Biden's candidacy had officially changed to Harris's.
O'Malley Dillon told campaign staffers their jobs were safe because the work had been shifted to Harris' campaign.
