The party that harps about the Donald Trump being a “threat to democracy” has successfully overthrown the Democrats’ nominee for the presidency. Joe Biden announced Sunday that he is dropping out of the 2024 race. 

He released a statement. Or more accurately, a white flag. 

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is the best interest of my party and my country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”

Biden not running… pic.twitter.com/4hOm6JgFsU

— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) July 21, 2024

According to CNN, Biden broke the news to his senior staff minutes before releasing his statement. His campaign staffers were blind-sided.

Although his statement strangely made no mention of endorsing his vice president, Biden declared in a later tweet, “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.”

My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best… pic.twitter.com/x8DnvuImJV

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024

Why a Harris endorsement wasn’t in the original statement is anyone’s guess. Perhaps AOC is right and the same people who pushed Biden out also want Harris out of the way. Indeed, while Barack Obama praised Biden’s decision, he did not endorse Harris.

The decision comes after enormous pressure from Democratic leadership and donors, including Obama, to force Biden out of the race (or as The Babylon Bee immediately joked, to oust Jill Biden from the race) — pressure that has left Biden furious and feeling betrayed and in the mood for fight on. However, on Sunday, the president gave in.

Perhaps it was a new poll showing he’s down seven percentage points to Trump in Michigan after yesterdays MAGA rally there. Perhaps his current case of COVID squeezed out the last ounce of resistance. Biden gave no specifics.

Kamala Harris says she is “honored” to have Biden’s endorsement. “My intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”

Biden’s Withdrawal Raises Question: Shouldn’t He Resign the Presidency?

Dropping out because “it is in the best interest of my party and my country” is an incredibly vague thing to say. Biden promises to say more sometime this week, but Democrats were pressuring him to “pass the torch” because they believed he was going to lose to Trump and drag House and Senate candidates down with him.

You haven’t been hearing any of them talking about his mental capacity to do the job right now; to a man (or a woman), they’ve staunchly defended him on that point when forced to answer the question directly. This leaves us with the cockamamie notion that Joe Biden is quitting just because of poll numbers three months out from the election

That, Jonathan Turley says, poses a problem.

The problem for the White House is the glaring disconnect between pulling out of the election but holding on to the office. Pulling out as simply politically incapable of winning makes a mockery of the unopposed primary process.

As if the party of lawfare and trying to kick Trump off the ballot is interested in democratic processes.

Republicans are asking the obvious question: If Biden is not capable of being a candidate, how is he capable of being president? Senate Republicans were blunt. “If Joe Biden is unfit to run, he is unfit to serve. He must resign.” U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson also called on Biden to resign “immediately.”  

Donald Trump, after telling CNN Kamala Harris will be easier to beat in the race than Biden would have been, released a statement on Truth Social saying Biden is not fit to serve “and never was.”

Statement from the 45th & soon to be 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump: pic.twitter.com/ttFcF52ZCS

— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) July 21, 2024

What Next? An Open Convention

What will happen next with the Democrats? As Roger Severino of the Heritage Foundation summarized, “The nominee for the Democratic Party will be selected, not elected.” Fourteen million Democratic delegates pledged their support for Biden during the primary process; but clearly, when power is on the line, the Left has no problem tossing the democratic process out the window.

Although Biden has now endorsed Kamala Harris, it’s unclear if Democrats will hand the keys over to the woman who is next in line. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been pushing to have an open convention. Word is currently circulating about the idea of a “mini-primary.” However, anything other than an anointing of Harris spells trouble, according to MSNBC analyst Cornell Belcher.

If the Democrats want to give the White House back to Donald Trump, let them go into an open nomination process and disrespect and step over the first black woman vice president in this country, and they will be committing absolute suicide.

A bit of history is our guide. Joe Biden is the first incumbent president to withdraw from a reelection campaign since Lyndon Johnson in 1968. That led to the violent and chaotic open Democratic convention in Chicago. The Democrats are scheduled to meet again in Chicago starting August 19. 

Look for updates here, plus we’ll be keeping track of the increasingly crazy 2024 race on tomorrow’s Brew and Afternoon Tea.

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.