Three weeks on the firing line and a final salvo of heavyweights against him (Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, among others) have finally pushed Joe Biden to abandon the race for re-election. Doubts about his suitability turned into criticism, and these into barbs, in a uniformly accelerated movement that ended up sentencing his fate last week, while the Republicans were triumphantly celebrating their convention in Milwaukee. To the nearly 40 congressmen who had been asking for his resignation since his failure in the debate against Donald Trump, on June 27, Senator Joe Manchin joined this Sunday, a headache during his mandate for opposing important bills.
But Manchin does not deserve the credit for ending the martyrdom of Biden and the Democrats; it was only the last drop of a flood that had been threatening to overflow for the past 25 days. Surrounded by his hard-core family, isolated from dissent by his wife, Jill, and his son, Hunter, who urged him to continue, the president resisted “passing the torch to a new generation,” as Manchin graphically pleaded with him, but he had to surrender to the evidence: either he would retire or drag the party — and millions of Americans, its voters — down with him in November.
Biden did not communicate it to most of his team until 1:45 p.m. on Sunday, a minute before announcing it on social network X (formerly Twitter). Vice President Kamala Harris also found out on Sunday, although it is not known at what time. Only two people outside his family – Steve Ricchetti, one of his closest advisers, and Mike Donilon, the campaign’s chief strategist – knew on Saturday that the decision had been made. The president summoned them in the mid-afternoon to his house on the beach in Rohoboth (Delaware), where he had isolated himself on Wednesday after contracting Covid. For hours, the three of them worked with the required social distance on the letter that this afternoon has shaken, once again, an already turbulent campaign. The statement that put an end to a growing internal rebellion of congressmen, donors, allies and a good part of public opinion.
From mid-afternoon and well into the evening, the three worked on the most momentous letter of their careers. Strategist Donilon helped draft the message, which was finalized Sunday, while Ricchetti worked out the timeline for the announcement. Family members and close aides were informed Saturday.
In the long stretch between his initial denial, claiming that his poor performance in the debate was due to a cold, and his insistence on staying in the race, as he said this Friday, the turning point of these turbulent 25 days came sometime last week, when he began to consider the possibility that Harris was a more viable option to stop Trump at the polls. Although for weeks the Democrats tried to divert attention from their internal debate – something they achieved thanks to the failed attack against Trump and the attention paid to the Republican convention – in the end the president saw that “he could not go any further,” according to an official who was protected by anonymity and quoted by the newspaper. The New York Times.
In these 25 days, there were clear signs that abounded in the call from many of his co-religionists to resign. On July 2, Pelosi, Speaker Emeritus of the House of Representatives, raised on MSNBC the legitimacy of asking whether Biden’s failures in the debate with Trump were an isolated episode or a sign of cognitive decline. That same day, the first congressman, Lloyd Doggett, of Texas, asked for his resignation. The next day, in a meeting with Democratic governors, Biden tried to calm his interlocutors by assuring them that he only needed more sleep. On July 5, in an interview on ABC, he said that only the Almighty could convince him to leave. On July 8, he challenged his congressmen with a letter in which he reaffirmed his candidacy. On July 11, as Democratic defections mounted, he made two egregious gaffes at two separate points during NATO’s 75th anniversary summit: calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was standing next to him, “President Putin,” and Kamala Harris, “Vice President Trump.” That same day, Obama and Pelosi privately—and Pelosi publicly—expressed concern about Biden’s condition (as did, also publicly, actor George Clooney, who had been with Biden at a fundraiser three weeks earlier).
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Events were precipitated after an energetic rally by the candidate in Las Vegas on Tuesday to ask for the black vote, in which he showed no signs of confusion or fatigue. On Wednesday, hours before his Covid diagnosis was announced, Biden himself admitted that he would reconsider his future if the doctors told him to due to a health problem. A few hours elapsed between this comment and the announcement of the infection, which unlike previous ones, he decided to spend in isolation in Rehoboth, and not in the White House. It was the first sign of a staging of the resignation. That same day, the influential congressman Adam Schiff, very close to Pelosi, used the same phrase as Manchin on Sunday: “It’s time to pass the torch.”
Virtual nomination attempt
Until the lockdown, the Democrat tried to prove his suitability by increasing his rallies and interviews. But the showboating did not reassure Democrats. “Anyone who thinks this is over is wrong,” said one House Democrat, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He is being receptive, not as defiant as he is in public. He has gone from saying, ‘Kamala can’t win,’ to ‘Do you think Kamala can win? ’” he explained. “It’s not yet clear where he will land, but he seems to be listening.” The threat of blocking funds from major donors also weighed on the final decision.
Even as the scenario of a withdrawal took shape by the minute, his faithful tried to avoid what already seemed inevitable, quietly pressuring the Democratic National Committee to speed up the virtual nomination process for the candidate, in the hope of voting this week and definitively closing the debate. Others, such as the influential senator Chuck Schumer and the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, bought time by convincing the committee not to advance the deadlines in order to try to resolve the crisis in the meantime.
Biden privately insisted he had a better chance of beating Trump than Harris, but few gave him credit any more. On July 18, Sen. Jon Tester urged him to drop out. Rep. Jamie Raskin sent him a letter, dated July 6 but known on the 18th, comparing him to a tired hitter. Anchorman Joe Scarborough, an ally who hosts the 2018 presidential election, called on Biden to drop out. Morning Joesuggested that his advisers should push him to leave. In total, almost 40 Democrats in Congress showed him the exit door, a major snub for Biden, still bitter about the 2016 defeat when party elites preferred Hillary Clinton to face Trump. Among the few endorsements he received, the one that stands out is that of the progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who last week warned of the “enormous danger” the party runs if an urgent primary process is opened.
At 1:45 p.m. on Sunday — one minute before his withdrawal letter was published — the president communicated it to several of his advisers, including the communications officer. He read them the statement and thanked them for their services, as well as urging them to finish the job in a demanding day like no other. The post on X was launched at 1:46 p.m. Announcing the end of his candidacy on the social network gave him the opportunity to do it “his way,” according to the source cited by the report. Timesavoiding the intrigues and leaks that have undermined his campaign — and his candidacy — in recent weeks. There was shock, tears and, for many, mostly relief.
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