[ad_1]
US President Joe Biden announced that he would end his re-election campaign, saying it was “in the best interests of my party and my country.”
With four months to go until the US election, the race for the White House is set to take a turn.
After a poor performance in a debate with Republican Donald Trump in late June, he received weeks of intense pressure from fellow Democrats.
Following the announcement Sunday evening, President Biden expressed his support for Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race.
In a letter posted on his social media accounts, he said serving as president was the greatest honor of his life.
“While I intend to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interests of the party and the country for me to step down and focus on the duties of the presidency for the remainder of my term,” he wrote in a statement.
Calls for Biden to drop out of the race have been growing since his poor performance in the debate with Donald Trump in late June.
During the debate, he was criticised for often speaking incoherently and with a weak voice – which his party claimed was due to a cold.
Subsequently, calls for his resignation grew louder within the Democratic Party, with more and more congressional Democrats concerned that his campaign would damage their chances of re-election in November.
Several senators in Congress’s upper house have also called for him to withdraw.
Although Kamala Harris has the support of the incumbent president, it is unclear whether she will be selected as the new candidate unopposed.
The focus now is on next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The election is set to begin on August 19, but Biden’s party has accelerated the process to comply with Ohio’s August 7 candidate certification deadline, meaning new candidates should be confirmed in a little over two weeks.
“sincere thanks”
In his statement, President Biden thanked Vice President Kamala Harris, calling her a “phenomenal partner.”
He added in the statement: “I want to express my sincere gratitude to the American people for the trust and confidence they have placed in me.”
“I believe today and I always will: if we work together, there is nothing America cannot do. We just have to remember that we are the United States of America.”
He wrote that he would address the nation on the matter next week.
He returned home to Delaware last week after being diagnosed with COVID-19, but said Friday he looks forward to “getting back on the campaign trail next week.”
He had previously said only “God Almighty” could make him quit, but later said he would consider quitting if his health was good.
Republican candidate Donald Trump responded on his Truth Society platform, saying Joe Biden is “unfit to run for president.”
[ad_2]
Source link
