US President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign on Sunday after fellow Democrats lost faith in his mental acuity and ability to beat Donald Trump while endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the party’s candidate. Biden, 81, in a post on X, said he would remain in his role as president and commander-in-chief until his term ends in January 2025 and address the nation this week.
The sudden change of mind and particularly when his successor will have a limited time available at his/her disposal to build momentum for the election campaign would surely affect the prospects of the party to defeat Donald Trump but the decision is yet another example of bowing before the popular will. Biden initially resisted pressure to step aside. He held damage-control calls and meetings with lawmakers and state governors and sat for rare television interviews. But it was not enough. Polls showed Trump’s lead in key battleground states widening and Democrats began to fear a wipe-out in the House and Senate. Biden as of Saturday night had planned to stay in the 2024 presidential race but told senior staff on Sunday afternoon that he was withdrawing, a source familiar with the matter said. It was also not clear whether the party would endorse his nomination for the presidential fight but in case Harris is retained as the candidate, she would become the first black woman to run at the top of a major-party ticket in the history of the country. The United States had a black President but never a woman President and if Harris, 59, becomes the Democratic nominee officially and defeats Republican candidate Donald Trump in November, she would be the first woman to serve as president. Harris initially mounted a run for the White House in the 2020 election, but quickly faded in the primary season after lacklustre debate performances and it is to be seen how she fares now when American people are more sensitive about debate performance in view of how Joe Biden fared vis-à-vis Trump. Anyhow, the decision of President Biden to leave the race is in line with democratic spirit and this is a lesson for those in the third world who prefer to stick to the power at all costs ignoring interests of the party and the country.
