PRESIDENT Joe Biden has done the right thing in suspending his re-election campaign, a political expert has told The U.S. Sun.
The commander-in-chief, 81, dramatically announced he would not seek a second term in office following weeks of mounting speculation after his poor first debate performance against Donald Trump.
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Biden announced that he would not seek reelection by posting a statement on his X account.
“It has been a great honor in my life to serve as your president,” he wrote.
“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 added that he would be addressing the nation later this week.
The news comes mere hours West Virginia Senator, Joe Manchin had called on Biden to “pass the torch.”
Biden has been urged to change course for weeks by a growing number of lawmakers on Capitol Hill and former presidential aides.
Calls for the president to end his campaign intensified again following gaffes at a Nato event in Washington DC where he accidentally referred to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as President Putin, and embarrassingly called Kamala Harris Vice President Trump.
Even A-list celebrities like George Clooney weighed into the debate, urging Biden to drop out.
Biden’s decision comes weeks after he vowed to continue fighting.
He is the first sitting president since Lyndon B. Johnson not to seek a second term.
Johnson dramatically announced the decision in March 1968 following a primary challenge and backlash over his handling of the Vietnam War.
Political expert David Richards believes Biden has taken the right course of action.
“Joe Biden did the right thing by stepping aside in the Presidential race,” he told The U.S. Sun.
“He has served his country well and for a long time, but it was clear based on the first debate, it was time for him to enjoy retirement from public service.
“It had become clear that the Biden campaign had become a liability for the Democratic Party.”
Richards believes the voters want a nominee that’s stable and on top of their brief.
“I think this is in part why Biden won in 2020 and why he was unable to recapture that same spirit four years later,” he said.
Election Day is just months away and Richards revealed the Democrats couldn’t afford to wait – given what is at stake.
Biden made the decision to end his re-election campaign following weeks of mounting pressure.
Biden’s post-debate gaffes
President Joe Biden’s gaffes have increased at an alarming rate over the past few years.
- Biden alarmingly described himself as a “Black woman” during a radio interview with Philadelphia station WURD on Thursday.
- “I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman… to serve with a black president,” Biden said, appearing to confuse himself with Vice President Kamala Harris.
- Biden previously served as VP to President Barack Obama, the US’ first black president, which is likely the source of his confusion.
- The president also attempted to go off-script and insult rival, Donald Trump, while addressing military families during the White House’s Fourth of July barbecue.
- While Biden came in strong, he fumbled his word and came crashing down.
- “By the way, you know I was at that World War I cemetery in France and a – the one that one of our colleagues, a former president, didn’t want to go and be up there,” Biden said in an apparent dig at former president Donald Trump.
- “I probably shouldn’t even say that. Anyway,” he continued as his voice dimmed.
- After shocking the audience, he quickly went back on script and tried to get the energy back up.
He called time – just days after defiantly telling ABC star George Stephanopoulos that only the Lord Almighty would be able to convince him to drop out.
Stephanopoulos was later seen telling a member of the public that he didn’t believe Biden would serve another four years.
Democratic sources sounded the alarm moments after Biden and Trump clashed in Atlanta in the CNN debate last month.
The event was the earliest in the presidential election cycle.
But Biden’s performance didn’t reassure those who were skeptical about whether he could serve for another four years.
Democratic strategist Van Jones told CNN that Biden didn’t do well.
And one politician told NBC News it’s “time to talk about an open convention and a new Democratic nominee”.
Biden sensationally admitted that he nearly fell asleep during the debate.
He claimed that his sprints around the world were among the reasons to blame.
PRESSURE MOUNTS
Democrats went public and called for Biden to suspend his campaign.
Lloyd Doggett, a Texas congressman, was the first lawmaker to call for Biden to step down.
Doggett stressed that he respected Biden’s achievements in office.
Democratic lawmaker Jared Golden, of Maine, penned an op-ed that revealed he would be OK with a Trump victory in November.
Colorado congressional candidate Adam Frisch and former Ohio lawmaker Tim Ryan also called for Biden to stand aside.
At least 10 House Democrats went public and called for Biden to end his race.
Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, had urged Biden to decide on his candidacy sooner rather than later.
Some wealthy Democratic donors also abandoned their support for the president, per the New York Times.
Now Biden has stood aside, it’s not clear who will succeed him as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
Top Democrats are jockeying for the position now Biden has suspended his campaign.
Vice President Kamala Harris has been touted as an option for the top of the Democratic ticket.
Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson said it would be a kiss of death for the Democrats if Harris were to be cast aside, per Axios.
A recent CNN poll suggested Trump would only be ahead of Harris by two percentage points – within the margin of error.
But Democratic fundraisers and strategists have cast doubt on whether Harris would be the right candidate to succeed Biden.
“She’s going to have to make herself believable as a world leader. That’s very tough,” strategist Hank Sheinkopf told DailyMail.com.
And Trump described her as pathetic in a rant from a golf buggy.
Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director, admitted he believed a different Democrat candidate would go up against Trump in November.
He urged the Democrats to be big and bold in their selection.
One name that Scaramucci touted was the current West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.
He told The U.S. Sun that Manchin would eat Trump’s lunch if he contests the election against the brash tycoon.
California Governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer have also been suggested as potential options.
Meanwhile, Trump’s polling remains strong and he holds an advantage in key battleground states.
Trump holds a national lead of around three percentage points, but crucially leading in states he lost in 2020, per Real Clear Politics.
The Republican is ahead in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania if the polls are to be believed.
Those six states were all carried by Biden just four years ago.
But the polls suggest that Trump is only narrowly trailing Biden in states such as Minnesota and Virginia.
Biden carried Virginia in 2020 by just shy of 10 percentage points.
His margin of victory was greater than Hillary Clinton, who defeated Trump by over five points in the state in 2016.
Minnesota could also be in play in November.
It’s a state that hasn’t been carried by a Republican presidential nominee since Richard Nixon’s landslide back in 1972.
Biden is ahead by roughly three points in the state so within the margin of error.
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