Senior White House and campaign officials for Joe Biden spent the past week insisting the president planned to stay in the race despite a flood of calls from within the Democratic Party for him to drop out.
Last Saturday (July 20), the US president’s advisers prepared a programme for Biden to resume campaigning as soon as he returned to the White House the following week.
The president has been recovering from Covid-19 at his home on the eastern shores of Delaware. From there, he had persisted in his re-election effort but became infuriated when coordinated pressure from some Democrats to step aside became public.
So, On Sunday morning (July 21), the president had changed his mindaccording to sources who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about how events unfolded.
A day earlier, on Saturday night, Biden began considering whether to step down, one of the toughest decisions of his 50-year political career.
He met with a small circle of attendees, among whom were Steve Richettione of his closest advisors, Mike Donilonhis chief strategist, Annie Tomasinihis deputy chief of staff, and Anthony Bernalchief of staff to first lady Jill Biden.
Steve Richetti, who has worked with Joe Biden since his days in the Senate, headed to the president’s beach house on Friday.
Mike Donilon, another aide who has played a key role in some of the president’s most important policy decisions, joined him on Saturday.
Biden and his advisors They analyzed the new polling data and debated whether he could defeat Donald Trump. in the current political landscape.
Faced with the new information – and bracing for yet another week of more public defections within the party – the president had to make a decision.
He worked with Donilon to draft the historic public statement that would end his candidacy, while Richetti thought through the details of disseminating the announcement and informing the rest of the staff.
Joe Biden made the final decision to withdraw on Sunday morning, at which time he called his chief of staff separately Jeff Zientsto his campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon already the vice president Kamala Harris to inform them, sources familiar with developments told the BBC.
At 1:45 p.m. (local time) on Sunday, the president held a video call with his most senior staff at the White House and on the campaign trail, including Anita Dunnwho manages its communications strategy.
A minute later, he issued the public statement that sent shockwaves through the American political landscape and radically changed the 2024 election.
“He said he had been thinking about it for the last few days,” a senior White House official told the BBC.
“It was a very well thought out decision,” he added.
Although Biden did not mention Kamala Harris in his opening statement, he endorsed her in a post on Twitter that was shared about half an hour later.
The two spoke several times throughout the day. in the run-up to the announcement, according to two sources familiar with the talks.
The First Lady, Jill Bidenwho is the president’s closest advisor and whose advice is considered key to the president’s decision, publicly said that she supported his withdrawal from re-election.
“Until the last hours of a decision that only he could make, she supported whatever path he chose,” she said. Elizabeth Alexandercommunications director for the first lady.
“She is the person who believes in him the most, his defender and is always on his side, in a way that only a wife of almost 50 years of marriage can do,” he added.
Many in the White House and on the campaign trail were not informed in advance. of Biden’s plans.
Most people found out about it through posts on social media.
Jeff Zients, the president’s chief of staff, spoke on the phone with White House officials and sent an email to the entire West Wing staff to confirm the announcement and thank them for their hard work.
He also conducted a telephone conversation with the president’s cabinet secretaries.
Meanwhile, Biden spoke with several congressional Democrats, governors and supporters, according to a White House statement. He plans to continue making calls in the coming hours, according to the statement.
Kamala Harris, who has said she intends to “deserve and win” the presidential nomination, spent Sunday afternoon speaking with lawmakers, including the Democratic House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffriesother key party officials and governors to shore up support for his candidacy.
Although she has already won the support of the president and top Democrats, her rise to the top of the ticket is not assured until delegates vote to confirm the person who will replace Biden in the presidential race.
The vote will take place at the Democratic National Convention in August.
It is worth noting that the former president Barack Obama has not explicitly endorsed it, while Bill and Hillary Clinton have.
While many were still digesting Biden’s announcement, on a call Sunday afternoon involving Biden’s presidential campaign team, senior officials said they would be “full steam ahead” behind the vice president.
“All of you, all of us, wherever we come from, we are here to support Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and to defeat Donald Trump,” he said. Jen O’Malley Dillonthe campaign manager, according to a source familiar with the call.
“And while today is a great day of transition, nothing changes about why we are here.”
“But the path forward is a path that we must all take together,” he concluded.
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