Biden bows out of 2024 race amidst rising party dissent
Although theoretically expected, Joe Biden's decision on Sunday electrified America and the world. Since the day of the catastrophic debate, he and his team assured everyone that he was still in the running for re-election. Suddenly, however, he changed his mind. "The president felt abandoned," reported Carl Bernstein on Saturday.
The day before Joe Biden announced that he was withdrawing from the presidential race, information emerged that allows us to look at this decision from a new perspective.
In a Saturday interview with CNN, Legendary journalist Carl Bernstein reported—citing his anonymous sources—what was happening at Joe Biden's home in Delaware, where the U.S. president was treating a COVID-19 infection.
The word "abandoned" was mentioned several times
According to Bernstein, Biden finally realized that his campaign was unsustainable. Members of his immediate family were thought to have changed their opinions on the matter. However, it did not come easy for them.
The president is angry; he feels he has been abandoned. The word 'abandoned' came up several times in conversations I had with people in the White House. Abandoned by the people he supported during their political careers, helped climb the ladder in Washington. In his opinion, these people turned away from him and did so in a really ugly way," Bernstein said on Saturday on CNN.
"His wife and son Hunter are asking, 'What is wrong with these people you took through this process? Where is their loyalty? Where is the recognition for what you have managed to achieve?'" the journalist reported.
Disastrous polls and growing pressure
On Thursday, the newspaper The New York Times, citing several people close to the president, reported that Joe Biden has begun to slowly accept the thought that he might not be able to win the November 5 elections and might be forced to withdraw from the race.
What tipped the balance? Everything indicates that disastrous polls for Biden, which gave him no chance of victory, and growing pressure from his own political camp day by day.
American commentators point out that a significant factor was the attitude of Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, still a very influential politician in the Democratic Party, about whom it is said that no one else can win political battles like her.
The Washington Post, citing its sources, reported last week that Pelosi told some Democrats in Congress that in her opinion, it would be possible to fairly quickly convince President Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.
She had earlier spoken personally with Biden about the recent poor polls, which clearly indicated that the path to victory in the November elections was closed. However, her entourage officially denied that such a conversation took place.
Sudden change of decision
According to American media, Joe Biden changed his mind suddenly in the night from Saturday to Sunday. As of Saturday, he was still planning to run for re-election. As reported by Reuters, at approximately 1:45 AM ET, Biden called his associates on a teleconference and informed them of his decision. He read a statement which was shortly after that published on social media.
"Serving as your president has been the greatest honour of my life. And although I intended to run for re-election, I believe that in the best interest of my party and the country, I should step down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term," stated Joe Biden.
