How a ‘seething’ Joe Biden accepted reality and made a historic call to quit the election
By the time the summer sun set on Washington on Sunday (Monday AEST), a political tempest had engulfed the capital. It was clear that everything about this election had changed.
It was a languid, hot and humid summer afternoon in Washington when the news hit the capital with the force of a tornado. Much of the city was empty on a lazy Sunday (US time) but within an instant Washington roared to life.
Phones began to bleep with the breaking news, people raced to turn on the TV, social media went berserk.
The people in the pool at the Washington hotel where I was staying began to empty as word spread. Joe Biden’s historic decision to abandon his presidential bid, although increasingly expected, still came as a stunning shock in the nation’s capital.
A day earlier, in complete secrecy, Joe Biden had come to the conclusion he had been desperately and stubbornly trying to avoid for so long.
He picked up the phone and summoned two of his most senior advisers to his holiday home in Rehoboth beach in Delaware and hatched out how he would deliver to Americans the stunning news that he had abandoned the presidential race.
Mr Biden had spent the previous day ‘seething’ about how the leaders of his own party had abandoned him. His lifelong colleagues, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and his former president Barack Obama had each made it public, via media leaks, that he needed to abandon his re-election bid because he was heading for defeat, including in every poll in the battleground states. Mr Biden, who had repeatedly insisted he would run, finally realised that he had run out of options. The game was up.
But no president had ever bowed out of the race so late and in such circumstances. How would he tell and explain it to the country? Mr Biden summoned Mike Donilon, his chief strategist and Steve Ricchetti, a close adviser to Rehoboth, where they sat at a distance from the president who was still in Covid isolation. They worked on the text of his statement until late into the night. Biden wanted it to be dignified and to reflect some of his achievements in office.
Eventually they settled on the words: “It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
Critically, Mr Biden also said he planned to endorse his Vice President Kamala Harris, a move which would confirm her as the clear favourite to succeed him.
As the statement was being drafted, late on Saturday night US time, Mr Biden told his family and his closest aides of his decision.
But he did not tell Ms Harris, the person he was going to endorse, until Sunday, just hours before the announcement was made.
Mr Biden could not address the nation about his decision because he was still coughing and wheezing from the effects of Covid and his isolation in Rehoboth meant he could not travel to the White House. So he said in the statement that he would address the nation to explain his decision later this week.
Once he had finalised the words, Biden waited until 1.45pm on Sunday Washington time to tell most of his advisers, including his communications chief Anita Dunn. He read the letter to them and thanked them.
Then 60 seconds later, at 1.46pm, Mr Biden dropped his bombshell announcement on Twitter.
A few minutes later he tweeted that he was endorsing Ms Harris and included a picture of them both laughing at the White House.
‘Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats – it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.’
Not long afterwards, Mr Harris put out her own statement, saying she expected to ‘earn and win’ the nomination and ‘unite the Democratic Party and unite our nation to defeat Donald Trump.’
The political machine across the US bumped into overdrive as the Democrats divided themselves into two camps – those who wanted the party to coalesce around Ms Harris as the nominee and those who wanted an ‘open contest’ to choose the best candidate.
Bill and Hillary Clinton came out quickly to endorse Ms Harris, but Mr Obama, pointedly made no endorsement of Ms Harris, saying instead he hoped Democrat leaders would ‘be able to create a process from which the outstanding nominee emerges.’
Within minutes Donald Trump also entered the fray, claiming that “Harris will be easier to beat than Joe Biden would have been.”
By the time the summer sun set on Washington, a political tempest had engulfed the capital. It was clear that everything about this election had changed. A new contest was brewing and anything could happen.
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