Inside the weekend when Biden decided to quit the race

“I need you and Mike at the house,” President Joe Biden said late on Saturday afternoon.

Biden was on the phone from his holiday home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with Steve Ricchetti, a counsellor to the president and one of his closest advisers. He was referring to Mike Donilon, his chief strategist and long-time speechwriter. Soon, both men were in Rehoboth Beach, socially distanced from the president, who was recovering from COVID.

From that afternoon and far into the night, the three worked on one of the most important and historic letters of Biden’s presidency – the announcement of his decision to withdraw from his re-election campaign after top Democrats, donors, close allies and friends had pressured him relentlessly to get out.

He would not tell most of his staff until a minute before making the historic announcement to the world on social media on Sunday (Monday AEST). Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden went on to endorse, spoke to him earlier on Sunday morning, as did Jeff Zients, his chief of staff, and Jen O’Malley Dillon, his campaign chair. A handful of senior advisers at the White House heard directly from the president on a Zoom call. Others in the West Wing learnt when they saw it on social media.

“I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down,” he wrote, “and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”

The concession was stunning, and discordant with the steady drumbeat of furious denials in the past few days from Biden’s campaign. It underscored how the president has kept information tightly controlled among a tiny circle of friends, long-time advisers and family members – something that has been true throughout his presidency, but especially during the crisis that has engulfed him since last month’s debate.

From the time the president arrived in Delaware with COVID late on Wednesday night, telling reporters “I am doing well”, there have been two political realities. One was a sprawling campaign infrastructure on autopilot, determined to march ahead by continuing to champion Biden. The other was playing out inside the 636-square-metre home with a sign over the front door paying tribute to the president’s son who died in 2015: “Beau’s gift”.

Almost no one outside the house knew what Biden was thinking until he posted his statement on social media. Until that moment, Biden’s allies had no choice but to assume that he was all in, until he made clear that he was out.

Biden places an order at a South Carolina takeaway shop in 2020, while campaigning for the presidency.Credit: New York Times

This account is based on interviews with people close to Biden, including lawmakers, donors, friends and family who were familiar with the president’s thinking as he made what may have been the most difficult political decision of his career.

‘Absolutely in it!’

O’Malley Dillon could not say it more plainly as she appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program to defend Biden.

“Absolutely, the president’s in this race,” she said on Friday morning, a trace of exasperation in her voice. She added: “He’s absolutely in it. He’s got to show that he is fighting for the American people. He’s done that day in and day out since the debate.”

Like other confidants, O’Malley Dillon was determined to keep the faith in public. At the campaign and at the White House, aides directed reporters to her comments as they insisted that the president was not wavering.

But it was getting harder to ignore the panicking donors and elected Democrats who were turning on him in public.

Over the course of the day on Friday, about a dozen more lawmakers called for the president to step aside and let someone else run. The quotes were damning: Massachusetts congressman Seth Moulton said Biden, “a mentor and friend” who had helped him get elected in 2014, “didn’t seem to recognise me” when they met at the D-Day anniversary commemoration in France last month.

Mike Donilon (left), Biden’s chief strategist, and Steve Ricchetti, one of the president’s closest advisers, leave after a meeting with Senate Democrats in Washington this month.Credit: New York Times

Throughout the day, there was no public word from Biden, who was hunkered down with wife Jill Biden, Ricchetti, deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, the first lady’s senior adviser.

People close to the president said they could sense that the seriousness of the moment was weighing on him. But if he knew he was going to drop out at that point, it was not clear, even to the small number of the people around him.

By evening, some people very close to the president could sense that something was coming, telling others that the end of Biden’s campaign seemed inevitable. But others were hearing a different message from the president.

Ron Klain, who served as Biden’s first chief of staff in the White House and has continued to advise the president, called Biden on Friday night to pass along words of encouragement.

Klain had received messages of support for Biden from senator Elizabeth Warren, as well as Faiz Shakir, a senior adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders.

“Stay in,” Klain said he told Biden.

“That’s my intention,” Biden responded. “That’s what I’m going to do.”

‘Still on the playing field’

The national co-chairs of Biden’s campaign gathered on their regular call on Saturday morning, bracing for what they thought could be big news about Biden’s future.

The call was hosted by O’Malley Dillon and included Jeffrey Katzenberg, a Hollywood mogul and donor, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, and several other high-profile figures who had been early endorsers of Biden’s bid for a second term.

Given everything that had happened just the day before, they expected dire news.

But the group was stunned when staff members simply began a rote description of the latest details on door-knocking and social media. After about a half hour, two or three of the exasperated co-chairs interrupted, saying they needed to talk about the elephant in the room.

An anguished discussion followed, but there was no resolution.

Cedric Richmond, a former Democratic member of Congress and a long-time friend of the president, got on the call late but insisted that Biden’s supporters were still behind him, especially those who benefit from his policy goals, including childcare and diversity.

“Joe Biden is still on the playing field, so I will wear that Team Biden jersey until the last bell rings,” he said after the call ended. Asked if he thought Biden could withstand the flurry of negative news in recent days, Richmond said: “I sure hope so.”

A week earlier, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, who is one of Biden’s strongest allies, had delivered a grim message to his face. He told the president that most members of Congress were ready to turn the page on his candidacy, and he urged him to consider three things: the risks to his personal legacy, the future of the country and the impact on Congress if Democrats were to take steep losses in November’s elections.

“I need another week,” Biden responded, according to a person with knowledge of the 35-minute meeting on July 13.

Once that week was up, and Biden was inching toward his decision, some of his closest allies – including senator Chris Coons of Delaware, a co-chair of the Biden-Harris campaign – were spending days at two national security forums at the Aspen Institute in Colorado. While they debated the future of Ukraine, the challenge of China and the impact of new technologies, they were calling into meetings meant to divine Biden’s intentions.

Coons, a close friend of Biden’s, called in from Aspen. To reporters, he issued a vociferous defence, saying that Biden “deserves the respect” to make his decision in private.

Kamala Harris in 2018. Biden has endorsed his vice president to take on Donald Trump in the presidential race.Credit: New York Times

Three phone calls

Biden seemed to show signs of a change of mind on Saturday in a conversation joined by Ricchetti, Tomasini and Bernal. Donilon, summoned by the president, arrived around 4pm.

The president had tried for weeks to flip the attention from his listless and at times incoherent debate performance last month back to his Republican opponent, former president Donald Trump.

But nothing seemed to work.

Still sick and raspy, the president opted to announce his decision by letter rather than on camera, and worked on drafting it with Donilon, the author of many of the president’s public words, while Ricchetti focused on next steps, including when to inform the staff, how to do it and who else would need to be notified.

The letter was finalised on Sunday, even as unaware White House officials and the president’s allies were still pressing reporters with comments about how determined the president was to stay in the race, defeat Trump and serve another term.

Just after 11am, even as Biden was preparing his exit, Richmond – one of the president’s top campaign surrogates – was on CBS’s Face the Nation program saying, “I want to be crystal clear, he’s made a decision. And that decision is to accept the nomination and run for re-election, win re-election.”

The first three to hear the truth were Harris, Zients and O’Malley Dillon, each in separate phone calls from Biden, according to several people familiar with the notifications.

At 1.45pm on Sunday – a minute before Biden posted his letter of withdrawal to the world – the president told several of his advisers, including Anita Dunn, who manages communications strategy. He read the letter to them and thanked his staff for their service.

“Come to me with the work, and let’s get it done,” the president told them.

Zients then held a call with other White House officials to confirm that it was true and thank them for all their hard work, followed by a similar call he held with members of his cabinet, who were not aware until the posting went online. Biden spent part of the day making phone calls to congressional leaders and other allies.

He decided to announce the end of his candidacy online, according to people familiar with the decision, because it gave him the ability to do it “his way”, avoiding the intrigue and leaks that have plagued his campaign in recent weeks.

The posting on the social platform X went out at 1.46pm.

A chorus of alerts

In the ranks of the White House, some were in shock. Others were crying. And others were relieved, at least, to know that a decision had been made and the campaign could move forward.

In Aspen, Coons was speaking on a panel titled “The End of Trust? AI and Misinformation and Disinformation”. In the middle of a discussion about the risks of deepfakes in the coming presidential election, members of the audience, including reporters, were trying to figure out whether the president’s letter was itself a deepfake.

Eventually the session was interrupted by Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state, who turned to the handful of journalists in the room to ask whether it had been confirmed. Checking their phones, they said it had – and Coons slipped out to return a call from the White House.

Klain said he was shocked that Biden had changed his mind.

“I’m sad about it,” he said in an interview after Biden’s announcement. “The president was our best candidate in 2024, and I’m sad that this effort to push him out succeeded. But I do think it’s time for the party to unite, and I think Vice President Harris is a very strong candidate.”

Many statements of praise soon followed, from politicians, friends and family.

“For my entire life, I’ve looked at my dad in awe,” his son, Hunter, wrote. “How could he suffer so much heartache and yet give so much of whatever remained of his heart to others?”

He added: “I’m so lucky every night I get to tell him I love him, and to thank him. I ask all Americans to join me tonight in doing the same. Thank you, Mr President. I love you, Dad.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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