In the five decades of official letters that Joe Biden has closed with that slanting, distinctive signature of his, Sunday’s missive confirming his intention to withdraw from the extraordinary, white-knuckle 2024 US presidential election campaign must have been the most difficult to sign.
It may also go down as one of his most courageous and consequential political decisions.
In the end, the president bowed to a gathering and irresistible message from senior leaders and close allies within the Democratic Party: his candidacy had become untenable, for no reason other than age and time.
He is 81 years old, and it had become obvious to everyone that four relentless years in the White House had exacted a shocking toll. This moment has been arriving since that alarmingly distracted and enfeebled debate performance against Donald Trump in Atlanta at the end of June.
Since then, a series of polls indicated that Trump’s newly reconfigured Republican Party was on course for a crushing November victory. Key figures among the elite donor class let it be known they were withholding financial contributions.
And by Sunday, some 31 of Biden’s fellow Democratic politicians had publicly called on him to make way. In a year defined by an unforgiving debate over his ability to speak convincingly and accurately in public, he acceded through a short, dignified letter addressed to “My Fellow Americans”.
“Together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” he said, reflecting on the accomplishments of his administration.
“We’ve protected and preserved our Democracy. And we’ve revitalised and strengthened our alliances around the world. 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.”
Though the news was not surprising, it represents another electrifying departure from precedent. No sitting American president has ever voluntarily dropped out of a race so deep into the campaign.
Barack Obama, who selected Biden as his running mate 16 years ago, said on Sunday that the decision was a reminder that the president was “a patriot of the highest order”.
The Democratic election is due to start on August 19th in Chicago, where Biden was expected to have been nominated by the 3,939 delegates. It leaves the party in an immediate state of flux. Shortly after Biden’s letter was posted, he formally endorsed Kamala Harris, his vice-president, to replace him on the ticket.
Other party voices have called for an open nomination process, with Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, California governor Gavin Newsom, current transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro and Illinois governor JB Pritzker all featuring prominently in the incessant what-if conversations of recent weeks.
Buttigieg, from South Bend, Indiana, made headlines over the weekend with a caustic synopsis of JD Vance, who was named as Trump’s running-mate at last week’s convention in Milwaukee.
While Harris will be strongly favoured to assume the nomination, selecting a new running mate – with an all-woman ticket of Harris and Whitmer a possibility – will have an instantly transformative effect on the Democratic campaign.
Within an hour of Biden’s decision, the Democratic National Committee circulated a letter stressing its support for Harris. Party grandees Bill and Hillary Clinton expressed their support for her.
Biden’s decision will also have a seismic effect on the Republican campaign – and on its candidate, Donald Trump. There had been whispers that the experience of narrowly surviving an assassination attempt on his life in Pennsylvania, a week ago, had appealed to the better angels of Trump’s nature: that he had experienced a profound change and would call for unity in a fractious, bitter election campaign.
However, his convention speech, after a detailed account of the visceral experience of being shot at, segued into a long and often dismal reflection which reinforced a bleak perspective on the state of America.
The Milwaukee convention speeches made it clear that the Republican pitch, post the shooting, was to present Trump to voters as an invincible and even providential candidate against the enfeebled Biden.
Upon learning of his rival’s exit, Trump saluted his exit with a social media post declaring that Biden “was not fit to run for president and is certainly not fit to serve – and never was.”
But this radical swerve, initiated by Biden, will cause internal alarm among Republican strategists. House speaker Mike Johnson responded to the news with a post that read: “If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President.” It is also expected that the Democrats will face legal challenges over the assumption that Harris can automatically inherit the campaign financial war chest.
While the transition will involve short-term chaos and uncharted electoral waters for the Democratic Party, it will generate a revival of optimism and energy among its grassroots and it pitches a gripping, elemental election campaign into an entirely new realm.
And the final act of Biden’s presidential campaign will also assure his place in the Democratic pantheon, for placing the party’s needs above his personal wishes.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis