US Vice President Kamala Harris with President Joe Biden. Photo source: White House
Washington D.C.: The President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, today announced he was withdrawing from the presidential race. In his place, he recommended Vice President Kamala Harris, a person of Indian Origin, and offered his “full support and endorsement” to her.
Biden posted on social media platform X at , announcing his decision not to accept the nomination and to focus “all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term”. He called upon Democrats to “come together and beat Trump”.
While many Democrats are now reported to have thrown their weight behind Kamala, whether she would be a Democratic nominee is still unclear just over 100 days before the US presidential election.
Biden was already under pressure from several Democrats to opt out of the United States presidential election following his first debate with the Republican challenger Donald Trump in Atlanta on June 27, 2024, which Biden himself conceded to be “poor”.
Incidentally, it was widely perceived that Donald Trump’s campaign had got an edge not just because of Biden’s lacklustre performance at the Atlanta debate, after which many democrats wanted Biden to be out of contention, but also after the gunman attack on him. However, in an interview with ABC News on July 5, 2024, Biden had categorically ruled out withdrawing and quipped, “If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race. The Lord Almighty’s not comin’ down”.
Even after the assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024, Biden was resolute, telling an interviewer on July 15 that he was not leaving the contest and that “It’s essentially a toss-up race.”
Biden today made his announcement of opting out of the fray at a time when the physician to the White House, Kevin C. O’Connor disclosed that the President was suffering from COVID-19 and had completed his eighth dose of PAXLOVID in the morning. “His [Biden’s] symptoms have improved significantly. His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature remain absolutely normal. His oxygen saturation continues to be excellent on room air. His lungs remain clear,” Kevin stated.
It may be mentioned that the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) KP.2.3 variant today accounts for approximately 12.8% of new cases in the United States, and Biden is its latest victim. “The President continues to tolerate treatment without any difficulty and will continue PAXLOVID as planned. He continues to perform all of his presidential duties,” Kevin said.
The withdrawal of Biden from the Presidential race, which ensures his discontinuation in office after the present term, also may have an impact on the two US-supported wars, in Ukraine and Gaza.
Questions were already raised on the future of the US military aid to Ukraine and if the US support for Kyiv could diminish if Trump returns to the White House. However, US officials were of the view that there was no reason to believe this since since the passage of the supplemental, Washington has continued to show its support to Ukraine through “PDAs” [Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs] and other kinds of support, and a US State Department official recently said he had no reason to think that that won’t continue over the coming months as well.
– global bihari bureau
