President Joe Biden will not serve a second term in office.
Sunday, Biden announced via a post on X, “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 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.” Biden would follow up with a second post offering his “full support and endorsement” for Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee for the 2024 election.
The announcement came as a surprise to many including Biden’s staff according to a report from ABC News which stated, “Biden’s letter came out at 1:46 p.m. — so his staff was told just one minute before the public announcement that he was dropping out.”
The announcement drew quick responses on social media from both sides of the aisle including Former President Donald Trump who, according to a separate ABC News Report, refered to Biden as the “worst President, by far in the history of our nation.” Several Republicans, including Kansas US Senator Roger Marshall, would go on to call for Biden’s immediate resignation.
In a social media post, Marshall stated, “If Joe Biden is unable to serve another term, then he must resign right now. If he’s unfit to campaign, he should not have the nuclear codes – it’s that simple.”
Democrats across the nation would go on to share their praise for the work of Biden over the course of his presidency including Kansas Governor Laura Kelly who stated in a post to X, “For more than five decades, President Biden has made it his life’s work to better our country for hardworking Americans. Above all, he has been firm in his desire to safeguard democracy in a time of hyper-polarization and divisiveness. I thank him for his service and steadfast leadership.”
With this announcement, Biden now becomes the first sitting President to bow out of a re-election campaign since Lyndon Johnson in 1968. In similar fashion, Johnson would also go on to endorse his Vice-President Herbert Humphrey as the Democratic nominee for the presidency.
Humphrey would lose the election to Richard Nixon.
Following his announcement, President Biden stated he plans to address the country later this week to offer more insight into his decision.
