Sudden surprises: Biden's withdrawal and the US election campaign

Biden's retreat

It took three and a half weeks: At the end of June, President Joe Biden faced a televised debate with his challenger (and predecessor) Donald Trump. Biden had proposed the date in order to give his election campaign new momentum and prove to critics that he could still perform powerfully despite his age. However, the opposite happened: Biden's erratic performance sparked a debate within the Democratic Party as to whether he was the right candidate.

For three and a half weeks, Biden resisted all public and private calls to reconsider his candidacy. However, the pressure became too great: critical statements from well-known Democrats, poor poll ratings and, above all, the reluctance of many donors to continue supporting his election campaign led to Biden finally announcing his withdrawal from the campaign.

In a letter Biden stated that it was the greatest honor of his life to serve as president. And although he wanted to seek re-election, he believed it was best for party and country to step back and concentrate fully on fulfilling his duties as president for the remainder of his term.

Biden thanked everyone who had campaigned for his re-election, especially Vice President Kamala Harris. Not in the letter, but half an hour later on social media, Biden declared that he was proposing and fully supporting Harris as the new candidate. 

The full-length publication is only available in German.