Behind Bidens withdrawal from the race: Considered a campaign liability, decision made within 48 hours

Original translation: BitpushNews Mary Liu

In the end, US President Biden withdrew from the political stage in isolation.

After his poor performance in the debate, Biden insisted that he would not leave. However, the abrupt end a few weeks later did not come from his speech at the White House or a campaign rally, but from an open letter he published on the X platform at his beach house in Delaware while in the midst of the new crown.

One of the most historic decisions in modern American politics was made public in such a low-key manner that Biden had no time to make or announce the decision himself.

Never before has a president dropped out of a reelection campaign so close to Election Day — and 24 days after he stubbornly planned how to calm the storm of public opinion following the June 27 debate in Atlanta.

Three weeks after the debate, he has continued to reiterate his determination to continue his campaign against former President Donald Trump.

He insists he can beat Trump, and his inner circle has shrunk to his closest aides and family members.

Yet he was forced to return home to Delaware, where he spent the past day and a half making a decision, ultimately relenting: A man who had been loyal to the Democratic Party for more than half a century was seen as a liability in the race.

The pressure on Biden from Democratic leaders, rank-and-file lawmakers and donors — as well as polls showing a treacherous and potentially insurmountable road ahead as the gap with Trump widens — may ultimately prove too much for Biden to bear.

Biden has been described as more isolated than ever, with pressure mounting behind the scenes and publicly. The harsh reality has become a chorus of calls for the president to drop out of the race, like a boulder rolling down a hill, with increasing momentum.

The president’s team had hoped that a June debate with Trump on CNN, months before the usual presidential debates, would help Biden pull back. They succeeded, but not in the way they expected.

Instead, Biden’s campaign began to unravel over the next 24 days. The president and his team tried to calm Democrats’ concerns but were unable to dispel the view that Biden was too old and in poor health to continue running.

On Sunday afternoon, Biden published two posts on X, announcing his withdrawal from the race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, hoping that the Democratic Party can quickly unite and get out of the chaos that the Democratic Party has fallen into since the debate.

It’s a high-risk, high-reward gamble for Democrats, who are starting anew as a new nominee 107 days before the election but are at a disadvantage in a race that comes at a time when Trump is at the height of his campaign, with his supporters rallying around him as he gained traction at the Republican National Convention following the assassination attempt.

Behind the decision to withdraw

A senior campaign adviser said Bidens final decision to withdraw from the race was made in the past 48 hours, and he consulted with family and senior advisers by phone while recovering from the coronavirus. A person familiar with the matter said the plan to withdraw from the race began to germinate on Saturday night and was finalized on Sunday.

The adviser said the president is not digging in his heels, but he is looking at the incoming data and is convinced he will drag the election and be an obstacle to defeating Trump.

A senior White House official told CNN that Bidens decision was not related to any medical issue.

When Biden met with two of his closest advisers on Saturday, the polling information they provided and the positions of senior Democratic officials emphasized that Bidens path to victory was essentially non-existent, according to another person familiar with the matter.

In the meeting with longtime aides Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, no single poll number, wavering Democratic official or fundraiser came up with a proposal that pushed Biden to make his decision, the person said.

Instead, the messages, which include polls and detailed information gleaned from outreach outside Bidens inner circle, emphasize how Bidens return to the race is badly hurt by falling poll numbers nationally and in battleground states and what could be a rapidly accelerating party defection.

Unlike in 2015, when Biden wrote in his book “Promise me, Dad,” that Mike Donilon told then-Vice President Biden that he should not run for president in 2016 because he was still grieving the loss of his son Beau, neither aide explicitly said he should drop out of the race this time, according to the person familiar with the matter.

Biden made clear before the meeting ended that he planned to drop out of the race and asked his aides to begin drafting the letter, which was released Sunday afternoon and ready for publication.

Biden, who is still recovering from his COVID-19 diagnosis, spent the weekend at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with his wife, first lady Jill Biden.

Biden did what he always does before any major decision: He held a family meeting Saturday night. Sources said he has spoken with all of his family members since deciding to drop out of the race, and his daughter Ashley and son-in-law Howard drove to Rehoboth early Sunday.

He confirmed the decision Sunday morning and, accompanied by Ricchetti, began calling key people beyond his top aides and family members, another person familiar with the matter said.

Biden consulted only a handful of close associates about the decision. Some members of his inner circle, including Anita Dunn, one of his closest communications advisers, were not informed of the announcement until minutes before he released it on social media.

Multiple sources told CNN that Anita Dunn and a small group of senior aides knew about Bidens statement minutes before the post was published. Many rank-and-file staffers learned about it after the post was published. Dunn and her husband, Bob Bauer, were part of Bidens debate preparation team and were displeased by the presidents family after the debate. A Biden aide denied that her absence had anything to do with the debate, telling CNN that she and other senior aides were not in Rehoboth Beach, and that the president told his aides that neither he nor his family would blame them for their poor debate performance.

Biden and Harris spoke several times on Sunday before announcing his candidacy, according to people familiar with the matter. Biden also spoke separately with Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and campaign co-chair Jen OMalley Dillon to inform them of his decision.

On Sunday afternoon in Washington, Zients hosted a conference call of senior White House staff with all of the presidents aides and spoke with members of Bidens Cabinet. Zients is expected to hold a full White House staff call Monday morning and speak with political appointees across the executive branch.

But even his pick for vice president, Harris, his successor, didnt know until the day he announced his decision.

Bad night changed the outcome

Ultimately, Biden faced a path from which he could no longer move forward: More than three dozen Democrats publicly called on him to drop out of the race. Party leaders told him he couldn’t win. Funds were also dwindling from donors who said they felt betrayed by a lack of public disclosure about Biden’s health.

Before Biden dropped out, one large Democratic donor told CNN: I dont know of any large donors who would write a check for $100,000 or more. But I know a lot of people who do.

Biden and his team tried to frame the debate performance as a bad night. He and aides blamed it on the presidents trip overseas. He said he would debate again and do better. He then immediately returned to the campaign trail, traveling to North Carolina the next day and delivering a spirited speech while acknowledging his shortcomings in the debate.

I know Im not getting any younger. I dont walk as easily as I used to. I dont talk as fluently as I used to. I dont debate as well as I used to, but I know what I know. I know how to tell the truth, Biden said.

The weekend after the debate, Biden held a prearranged gathering with his family at Camp David to encourage him to continue his campaign.

But in Democratic circles, panic has begun to spread. The problem is obvious: Bidens biggest problem in the minds of voters is that they believe he is not qualified to serve as president for the next four years. This debate confirmed their concerns and exposed Bidens greatest political weakness to the public.

No policies, statements, or criticism of Trump can change that.

While Biden insists there is nothing that would persuade him to drop out of the race, Democrats have begun laying the groundwork and leaving the door open for change. I think its a legitimate question for people to ask whether this is a unique situation or an endemic disease, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on MSNBC.

On July 2, Rep. Lloyd Docter of Texas became the first elected Democrat to call on Biden to withdraw. The next day, Biden met with a group of Democratic governors, telling them that he needed to get more sleep and should stop scheduling events after 8 p.m.

Biden tried to justify his candidacy in a July 5 interview with ABC News George Stephanopoulos, in which he angered many Democrats by saying only God Almighty could convince him to drop out.

It was the first of several attempts by the Biden team to bring the president into the public eye and quell growing discontent. They all failed.

Signs of trouble

After July 4, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., quietly tried to convene a group of Democrats for a meeting with Biden to urge him to drop out of the race. However, the idea quickly died.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries held a call with House Democrats that weekend during which several lawmakers said Biden needed to step down.

On July 8, Biden sent an impassioned letter to congressional Democrats, saying he would continue his reelection campaign. “I am deeply committed to staying in this race, seeing it through, and defeating Donald Trump,” he wrote.

Calls for Biden to step down soon came from outside Washington. On July 10, George Clooney published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for Biden to step down. Even more shocking to the president, Clooney said the Biden he saw at a June fundraiser was the same Biden the world saw at the June debate, and that the president had been on a downward spiral since entering the White House.

Pelosi also appeared to continue to backstab Biden. On the same day as Clooney published his column, she refused to publicly support him in an interview with MSNBC, saying that it is up to the president himself whether to run or not.

Several news outlets, including CNN, have reported that Pelosi and former President Barack Obama have privately expressed concerns about the future of Bidens campaign.

On July 11, Biden held a separate press conference during the NATO summit in Washington, where he further hinted at the possibility of withdrawal, saying he would consider withdrawing if the data showed he could not win.

Biden also made several minor gaffes, including referring to Harris as Vice President Trump. Earlier in the day, he referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as President Putin, before correcting himself.

After Bidens press conference, a handful of congressional Democrats called on him to withdraw, bringing the number of those calling for his withdrawal to 15. The list includes Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, a top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who said he deliberately waited until after the NATO meeting to join the push to withdraw.

That weekend, Biden held meetings and calls with multiple Democratic caucuses, including the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the moderate New Democratic Coalition. The call with moderate Democrats was tense as Biden sparred with Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., who told him bluntly that voters were concerned about his energy and strength, especially on the world stage.

The president responded to Crow, an Army Ranger who served two tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, saying he knew Crow had received a Bronze Star, as had his late son Beau, but he did not rebuild NATO.

In response to Crows concerns, Biden once told him: I dont want to hear that crap.

Calls for Biden to step down briefly fade, but not for long

More Democrats were expected to publicly call for Biden to step down that weekend, but that discussion was halted when Trump narrowly escaped death at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The failed assassination attempt has upended the political world, focusing public attention not on Bidens ability to win reelection but on the bullet that grazed Trumps ear, raising questions about why a gunman was able to shoot the Republican presidential nominee five days before he was to accept the nomination.

The pause did not last long.

Behind the scenes, Democratic pollsters circulated memos saying Biden could lose the election and — importantly for congressional Democrats — damaging the candidates in the race. Some polls showed other Democrats outperforming Biden in key battleground states.

Everything to lose is how one Democrat described a polling memo that Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg sent to Bidens inner circle.

On Wednesday, rumors resurfaced. California Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democratic Senate candidate and leader of Trumps first impeachment trial, became the first lawmaker to publicly call on Biden to withdraw from the race after Trumps assassination.

Schiff’s standing within the party made his voice one of the most influential at the time as a potential senator and close ally of Pelosi.

While it was President Bidens personal choice to withdraw from the race, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch, Schiff said in a statement.

More party leaders speak out

Soon, more voices followed. And arguably more importantly, the private calls for Biden to drop out of the race turned into public urging him to withdraw.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who is leading Trumps second impeachment trial, confirmed that he had sent a letter to Biden on July 6 encouraging the president that there is no shame in withdrawing from the 2024 presidential election and comparing him to George Washington and Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez.

CNN reported on Wednesday that Pelosi privately told Biden that polls showed he couldnt beat Trump and that he could destroy the Democrats chances of winning the House in November. Biden countered that he saw polls showing he could win. At one point, Pelosi asked Donilon, Bidens longtime adviser, to get on the phone to discuss the data.

The same day, Schumer told Biden during a meeting on Saturday that it would be best for him to drop out of the presidential race. A person familiar with the meeting between Biden and Jeffries said the Democratic House leader did not ask him to step down, but instead pushed that advice to his fellow lawmakers.

White House and congressional officials have tried to suppress the reports, issuing statements denying them. But the stories about party leaders sending messages to Biden have had an effect. On Friday, more than a dozen freshman Democrats issued a statement saying Biden should drop out of the race.

That included another close Pelosi ally, Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California. A source with direct knowledge of the situation said Biden was furious with Pelosi on Friday, fueled by Lofgrens letter.

Disappointed donors

The Democrats’ public statements illustrate one of the challenges Biden faces in his campaign — but just as important, donor defections could cause fundraising to dry up in the campaign’s final stretch.

Major Democratic donors have expressed skepticism about Bidens viability, with multiple saying their concerns were met with cold shoulder by Biden campaign officials.

How do you think we feel? a Democratic donor with close ties to the Democratic National Committee and the White House told CNN before Biden dropped out of the race, explaining the mood among donors. We all feel betrayed because they werent honest with us about his health.

Angry donors have also told the House and Senate Democratic campaign committees they will freeze contributions unless party leaders take stronger steps to remove Biden from office, two sources told CNN on Thursday.

Yes, that card has been played, a senior House Democrat told CNN Thursday evening.

“They think if Biden becomes the nominee, they’ll lose control of the House and Senate, too,” said a Democratic strategist closely involved in big-money fundraising. “They don’t want to waste money.”

According to sources involved in the discussions, donors suddenly began contacting advisers with large donations shortly after Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 election. According to three people familiar with the discussions, before Biden decided to withdraw from the 2024 election, multiple donors reached out to Harris team and expressed their willingness to support her if she became the candidate.

The abrupt stop concession

Until the moment he dropped out, Biden and his team insisted he would stay.

Bidens team has spent the past week laying out a public schedule for the president designed to showcase his ability to continue his campaign.

On Monday, he again gave a televised interview to NBC News Lester Holt, acknowledging his poor performance in the debate while criticizing the media for focusing on his gaffes instead of Trumps lies. Biden again said he had no intention of resigning.

Biden then traveled to Las Vegas for campaign events, spoke at the NAACP National Convention and the UnidosUS Annual Conference, and was interviewed by BET and Univision. Biden told BET News Ed Gordon that the only thing that would make him reconsider running for reelection is physical condition.

The president spoke at the NAACP convention, but before he could deliver his speech at UnidosUS on Wednesday, he suffered another blow: a coronavirus diagnosis.

The president returned to his home in Rehoboth Beach that day to isolate, and his public schedule was suspended indefinitely while he recovered.

On Friday, Biden issued a statement saying he would return to the campaign trail next week, and Biden campaign chairman OMalley Dillon said on MSNBCs Morning Joe that Biden absolutely would remain in the race.

The campaign also released a memo saying there were no plans to nominate another candidate.

Biden called some of the Democrats who have endorsed him on television over the weekend. Two of them told CNN that the president expressed gratitude before expressing anger at those who are trying to remove him from office. There was some sadness in his voice, but more anger, said one loyal Biden supporter.

Even as late as Sunday, Bidens team publicly insisted he was not leaving. South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, a key Biden ally, told CNN on State of the Union that Biden and Harris have received over 14 million votes to be our standard bearers. Thats where we are, Clyburn said. The congressman endorsed Biden ahead of the South Carolina primary, which was widely seen as key to Bidens victory.

Biden spoke with Harris on Sunday before announcing his decision, which contained two messages: First, he said he was withdrawing, and second, he supported his vice president as the Democratic nominee.

A source familiar with the timing told CNN that Biden told his most senior team he would be leaving get off work around 1:45 p.m., when the open letter was sent.

Before this, his campaign had been gaining momentum, the same source said.

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