Joe Biden has announced he will not seek re-election against Donald Trump in November.
The incumbent president, who is currently self-isolating with Covid, made the announcement via a post on social media site X, formerly Twitter.
He wrote: ‘It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President.
‘And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interests 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’s decision to stand aside in the presidential race against Trump will be widely received as bowing to internal Democratic Party pressure after his disastrous debate against the Republican candidate on CNN late last month.
During the debate, the Democrat candidate appeared confused and unable to finish his sentences.
Though the current president appeared to rally in the immediate aftermath of his performance, the following weeks have seen gaffe after gaffe amid frantic momentum to calls for him to step aside.
His decision to bow out ahead of the election now fires the starting pistol on a separate, internal party race to find a replacement with enough political clout to challenge Trump in November.
Minutes after posting his historic statement, Biden published a separate post endorsing his 59-year-old vice president Kamala Harris to replace him as Democratic nominee.
He described his decision to pick her to be his second-in-command four years ago as the ‘best decision I’ve made’.
A polling memo leaked from inside the Democratic Party earlier this week showed that alternative candidates were already leading against Biden by an average of 3% in key battleground states.
But the document also says ‘voters are looking for a fresh face’, with figures less closely tied to the current administration performing ‘relatively worse than other tested candidates.’
While Harris might seem to be the most obvious choice, other names – such as Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Maryland Governor Wes Moore – were being floated within the party.
However, Biden’s statement this evening urged his party to ‘come together and beat Trump’ – suggesting he would prefer to avoid the complex process of choosing a nominee from a shortlist.
Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer paid tribute to the outgoing president in a post on X, saying: ‘Joe Biden has not only been a great president and a great legislative leader but he’s a truly amazing human being.
‘His decision of course was not easy, but he once again put his country, his party and our future first.’
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who met Biden for the first time at a Nato summit earlier this month, said he respects the president’s decision and looks forward to working with him ‘during the remainder of his presidency’.
He added: ‘I know that, as he has done throughout his remarkable career, President Biden will have made his decision based on what he believes is in the best interests of the American people.’
No sitting US president has ever dropped out of a re-election campaign so close to election day, and Biden’s decision leaves his party with just under a month to rally around an alternative.
There are also only three and a half months until the country chooses its next president on November 5.
Trump has ridden a wave of support and outpourings following last week’s assassination attempt by Thomas Matthew Crooks at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Appearing at the Republican National Conference in Milwaukee just days after the failed shooting, he struck a defiant tone in addressing the crowds, many wearing bandages over their ears in a show of solidarity.
In a post on his own social media platform Truth Social this evening, Trump wrote that Biden ‘was not fit to run for president, and is certainly not fit to serve – and never was’.
He added: ‘He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement.’
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