US President Joseph Biden has withdrawn from the presidential race for a new term, Reuters reports.
The agency reports that Biden ended his re-election campaign today after his colleagues from the Democratic Party lost faith in his mental acuity and ability to defeat Republican opponent Donald Trump.
In a post on the X social network, Biden said he will remain in his role as president and commander-in-chief until his term expires in January 2025 and will address the nation this week.
"It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president. And while it was my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and country that I step down and focus on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term." ", Biden wrote.
Biden announced on the X network that he supports US Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him in the presidential race.
"Fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energy on the duties of the president for the rest of my term," he wrote on IX.
He added that his first decision as a candidate in the 2020 elections was to choose Kamala Harris as vice president, and that it was the best decision he made.
"Today I want to give my full support for Kamala to be our party's candidate this year. Democrats - it's time to come together and defeat (Donald) Trump," he wrote.
Reuters previously reported that Biden did not immediately endorse Harris to replace him as the running mate.
Radio Free Europe states that the Democratic Party now needs to choose a new candidate who will face Republican candidate Donald Trump in November in a race that has already been marked by tensions, divisions and an assassination attempt on Trump.
The withdrawal from the race comes after months of speculation about Biden's age and ability to serve another four years, followed by a series of gaffes and, according to his party, a disastrous debate performance against Trump.
Biden, 81, has previously insisted he is in the best position to defeat Trump in the upcoming Nov. 5 election, but has faced calls from within his own party to step down.
Three days ago, Biden was dealt a heavy blow by the well-known Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff from California, who said it was time for Biden to hand over the helm to someone else.
Voice of America writes that by withdrawing from the election race, Biden opened the way for Harris to be the first African-American presidential candidate in American history.
The media reports that it is not yet known whether other Democrats will compete with Harris for the party's nomination. For now, she is considered the favorite of many party officials.
Biden gave up his candidacy for a second term after public and private pressure from many Democratic members of Congress and party officials, Voice of America writes.
Reuters: Said he was stepping down Sunday afternoon, angry with Pelosi
Reuters reports, citing a source familiar with the case, that Biden planned to stay in the presidential race until Saturday evening, but that this afternoon he told senior staff that he was withdrawing.
"The message last night was to go full speed ahead. Around 1:45 today, the president told his team he had changed his mind," the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The media reported that the decision caught many White House officials by surprise, with several expressing shock that the president made the announcement while recovering from the coronavirus at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, USA.
Biden spent the weekend coughing and fighting pressure from Democrats to drop out of the race, Reuters writes.
He was particularly angry with former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who Biden's advisers believed orchestrated a pressure campaign to force him to resign.
Hours before the shock announcement, the Biden campaign denied reports that the US president was planning to drop out.
A historic move
Just four days before the announcement that he was leaving the race, Biden tested positive for covid for the third time, which forced him to cut short his pre-election visit to Nevada and return home to Delaware, where he is in isolation. So far, more than 30 Democratic members of Congress have called on him to drop out of the race.
Biden's move is historic - he is the first incumbent president to abandon his bid for a second term since President Lyndon Johnson in March 1968, Voice of America writes.
If Harris is the Democratic candidate, she would be the first black and Asian-American woman to run for president in a country that has elected one African-American president and never a female president in more than two centuries of democracy, the media writes.
When he defeated Trump in 2020, Biden was the oldest American president in history. During the campaign, he stated that he is a bridge to the next generation of democratic leaders. Some interpreted it as an announcement that he would serve only one term.
However, he decided to run again, convinced that he is the only Democrat who can beat Trump again.
His team hoped that a strong performance in the June 27 debate would allay Democrats' fears about his age. However, the opposite happened - after the debate, about 40 percent of Democrats thought he should drop out of the race, according to a Reuters and Ipsos poll.
According to a recent poll by the AP and the NORC Center for Public Research, that figure was 65 percent.
Donors began to protest, and leading Democrats began to tell Biden that he could not win. Biden initially resisted the pressure, talking to members of Congress and governors, and giving a series of TV interviews. However, that was not enough as polls show Trump's lead increasing in states that will decide the winner of the November 5 election.
Fearing that he would not only lose the presidential race, but also suffer heavy losses in the Senate and the House of Representatives, Democrats began to put increasing pressure on Biden to step down.
On the other hand, Trump - who recently survived an assassination attempt - formally accepted the Republican nomination at the party's convention last week, and the party was united in its support for the former president. However, Trump was convicted in New York for trying to cover up payments to a porn actress, and he is facing two more criminal indictments for trying to change the will of the 2020 election.
During the party's primary, Biden won more than 3.600 delegates who are supposed to formally select a presidential nominee at the party's convention in Chicago in August.
If the Democratic Party does not change the rules, the delegates whose support Biden won will be marked as "undecided" at the convention, meaning they can vote for his successor.
Reactions of leaders of other countries
Several leaders of other countries commented on Biden's decision to drop out of the presidential race.
Prime Minister of Great Britain Keir Starmer said that Biden made a decision based on what he believes to be in the best interest of the American people, Reuters reports.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gar Store said he respects Biden's decision not to run for re-election, reports Reuters.
"It deserves respect," Store told national broadcaster NRK.
"Biden was one of the most prominent American politicians for several decades and a president who implemented several important reforms," he said.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X: "Mr. President Joseph Biden, you have made difficult decisions many times that have made Poland, America and the world safer, and democracy and freedom stronger. I know you were guided by the same principles when announcing your latest decision , possibly the hardest in his life."
Czech Prime Minister Peter Fijala also wrote on IX: "It is undoubtedly the decision of a statesman who has served his country for decades. It is a responsible and personally difficult step, but it is all the more valuable. I keep my fingers crossed for the USA that a good president emerges from the democratic competition of two strong and equal candidate."
Reuters reports that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the elections are in four months, and that it is a long period in which many things can change.
"We have to be patient and carefully monitor what is happening. The priority for us is the special military operation," said Peskov, referring to the war in Ukraine, which Russia calls a "special military operation."
Bonus video:
