Thunderbolt on the White House: Joe Biden announced Sunday that he was giving up running for a second term, his vice-president Kamala Harris saying she was ready to replace him for « beat Trump » in a Democratic campaign now plunged into the unknown.
After weeks of uncertainty, weakened by doubts about his mental acuity, the 81-year-old American president announced that he was throwing in the towel very late in the campaign, a month before the convention that should have inaugurated him as a candidate.
“I believe it is in the interest of my party and the country that I step down and focus solely on carrying out my duties as president until the end of my term.”Mr. Biden said in a statement.
“Today I want to give my full support and endorsement to Kamala to be our party’s candidate this year.”he added on the social network X from his seaside villa where he was confined after contracting Covid.
This shock announcement, expected despite repeated denials from the main person concerned, disrupts a campaign that has already experienced many twists and turns, the first of which was the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on July 13.
Kamala Harris, the first African-American woman to become vice president, immediately declared herself ready to “win the nomination” Democrat in view of « battre Donald Trump ».
Aged 59, she displays a youthful image compared to Donald Trump, 78, who emerged this week strengthened from the nomination convention which saw the Republican Party rally behind his candidacy.
US President Joe Biden (L) and Vice President Kamala Harris (R) at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, on July 4, 2024 / Mandel NGAN / AFP/Archives
An event that disrupts the Republican’s strategy. “We have to start all over again” he wrote on his social network, tackling Kamala Harris in passing, who will be ” even worse “ that Joe Biden.
Joe Biden, for his part, announced that he would address the nation “later this week”.
In New York, the news was not unanimous among voters. “It was the right thing to do for him”Gay Joseph responded to AFP.
“He was pushed by the party to leave the race. I did not agree”says Joanie Daidon, another resident.
“Unknown terrain”
Echoing his party’s leading figures, House Republican leader Mike Johnson called on the Democratic president to “resign immediately”.
US President Joe Biden aboard Air Force One in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, on July 5, 2024 / SAUL LOEB / AFP/Archives
On the Democratic side, where pressure on the president has continued to mount in recent weeks, praise continues to flow, with influential Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer, for example, hailing a “great patriot”.
Another leading Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, praised “one of the most important presidents in American history”.
At the Democratic Party convention in Chicago in mid-August, the choice of Kamala Harris now seems very possible, but it will not be automatic.
She has already received another major endorsement, with former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, announcing their support for Harris on Sunday.
Very quickly, other figures from the Democratic Party announced that they supported her, among them: the former American Secretary of State, John Kerry, the figure of the American left, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, who was seen as a possible rival.
But former President Barack Obama, one of the most influential Democratic figures, was content to express his ” trust “ in his party to establish “a process that will allow the emergence of an exceptional candidate”not to mention Kamala Harris.
While considering that Joe Biden was “convinced it was the right (decision) for America”Barack Obama warned Democrats who will “navigating uncharted territory in the days ahead”.
The final word goes to the Democratic Party delegates, 3,900 people with a wide variety of backgrounds and most of them completely unknown to the general public. The selection process will be “transparent and disciplined”promised in a press release the leader of the Democratic Party Jaime Harrison.
The choice of Joe Biden was welcomed by several leaders of allied countries, from Australia to Israel, with Russia saying it was « attentive » to the situation.
Doubts
It was Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in his June 27 debate with Donald Trump that precipitated events. That day, it was a very weakened president who appeared before the screens of his dismayed supporters, sometimes unable to finish his sentences.
US President Joe Biden on December 17, 2022 in Greenville, Delaware / Jim WATSON / AFP/Archives
A painful spectacle that brought to light the doubts about his age, which his relatives had tried to keep a lid on.
Who was going to be the first to draw his gun and ask him to stop there? Relatively unknown Democratic elected officials started, until they became party heavyweights.
One after another, fearing a landslide victory for Donald Trump, they abandoned him, most of them at first in private.
The American media, citing anonymous sources, have thus affirmed that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer had expressed their concern.
And the images of a Joe Biden who recently tested positive for Covid-19, struggling to get down the gangway of his plane, only amplified the nervousness of his camp.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump, who miraculously escaped gunfire during a campaign rally, seemed to be enjoying a state of grace, with legal victories and a consecration at the Republican Party convention.
