Biden drops out of 2024 reelection race, endorses Harris for nominee

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President Biden is ending his run for a second term in office, a bombshell decision just 105 days before Election Day, bowing to pressure from his party after a disastrous debate at the end of June where he seemed to lose his train of thought.

For Biden, 81, the June 27 debate hardened a narrative that he was too old for another four years in the job. He insisted for three weeks that he would fight to make a comeback. But on Sunday he said he had changed his mind.

"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," he wrote in a letter addressed to "my fellow Americans" posted on social media.

He followed up with a post endorsing Vice President Harris as nominee, and urged his party to come together.

His decision comes just a month ahead the party’s convention. But the path ahead to Nov. 5 is unclear, and it will be difficult for the party to get organized on time.

Not since March 1968 has an incumbent U.S. president opted out of running for a second term — when President Lyndon B. Johnson, under pressure over the Vietnam War, dropped out of the presidential race during a live television address.

A fumbled debate touched off Democratic panic

Polls have long shown that most voters disapproved of Biden's performance and thought he was too old for the job. But Biden’s campaign team had argued that support would pick up once voters had the chance to think about former President Donald Trump’s positions on abortion rights and his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

Biden’s campaign thought the debate