Flanked by a handful of trusted advisers and First Lady Jill Biden at his vacation home on the Delaware shore Saturday evening, President Joe Biden reflected on his more than half-century-long political career and began to believe it might be coming to an end sooner rather than later. According to people familiar with his decision, it was planned.
Isolated, frustrated and angry, he felt betrayed by allies who turned on him in his hour of need.
“He’s really upset,” said one person close to Biden.
As crazy as it was — and still is — Biden willingly accepted that he couldn’t continue his campaign with his poll numbers slipping, donors fleeing and party luminaries pushing him to quit. He may have been slower than other Democratic insiders to make that calculation, but he got it right Saturday night.
The account of that critical weekend and what led to Biden’s stunning announcement came from interviews with two dozen Democrats familiar with what happened.
In separate phone calls on Sunday, Biden told Vice President Kamala Harris, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and campaign chairman Jen O’Malley Dillon that he would not seek re-election. That he had to inform them in such a way underscored how narrow the circle has become in recent days with family members and several longtime aides and advisers — Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, Anthony Bernal and Annie Tomasini.
The result may not surprise White House and campaign officials, but the timing did. Most, like the rest of the world, found out when Biden posted his post on X. The same was true for Democratic National Committee officials and state party chairs. Senior Biden aides scrambled to set up separate meetings to speak with White House and campaign staff, reassuring political aides that their jobs were safe.
As always, the ending was abrupt. But that followed a hellish 25-day stretch on June 27, fueled by the most disastrous debate performance in modern American political history. Biden failed to reassure his fellow Democrats — or enough of them — in subsequent public appearances. Major donors have cut money to his campaign and party. Drip by drip, elected officials began urging him to drop his offer. The godmother of the Democratic Party, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, said she still has a decision to make after insisting she chose to stay in the race.
There was less light than darkness on the horizon.
On Saturday, he spoke with Pelosi — a conversation his office has denied — CNBC reported on this, citing a person with direct knowledge of their interaction. Pelosi, whose closest allies have publicly urged her to drop out, has stopped short in recent weeks, not responding to a text message seeking comment.
Senior Biden’s aides expected Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, to publicly call for him to step aside after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week.
Biden also met with Donilon and Ricchetti on Saturday. They went through “literally everything,” including an uncertain vote in battleground states, about a possible path forward for him, but two trusted aides made no recommendations on what he should do, the sources said. Their view was that Biden had already decided to back down, and the debate reinforced it. Still, they all decided to sleep on it.
On Sunday morning, they met again, keeping things incredibly tight to prevent leaks.
On Thursday, former White House chief of staff Ron Klein, who urged Biden to stand firm, said Biden was “feeling the pressure.” As of Friday night, he still hadn’t changed his mind, according to a person close to him.
Friends have told him that he is risking his legacy as the man who defeated Donald Trump and passed a series of major laws and could become a scapegoat if the Democrats take over in November. He believed he could win again, at least until this weekend. In 2020, he promised to be a bridge candidate. In the end, he didn’t want to be a bridge between Trump’s two terms.
“It’s become a no-win situation, a self-fulfilling prophecy,” said Cedric Richmond, a former White House official who co-chaired Biden’s 2020 campaign. Once the money dries up and elected officials withdraw their support, “it’s impossible to win, and he always puts country and party first.”
By the time Biden called with his full complement of top advisers at 1:45 p.m. Sunday, the official statement announcing his decision had already been written. A minute later, his X account posted this statement, telling the public that he would stay in office, but only stay He refused his party’s nomination — making him the first eligible president to do so since Lyndon Johnson in 1968. Less than 30 minutes later, he endorsed Harris, blessing him as the best choice to defeat Trump in the four-month sprint to Election Day.
After his announcement, Biden made 40 to 50 phone calls Sunday night about his decision, according to sources.
In recent days, as calls for his resignation mounted, Biden wanted to see the campaign question how Harris would fare in a hypothetical matchup against Trump, according to two people familiar with the matter. They said he was also considering a public inquiry because he wanted to know more about his stance on Trump. The Harris vote was so closely held that it spread to only a handful of top campaign aides, including Donilon and O’Malley Dillon, two people familiar with the matter said.
Biden’s challenge appeared to hinge entirely on political factors rather than concerns about his health or ability to do his job. A senior administration official said there was no new medical information to inform Biden’s decision, although he recently said he might reconsider his candidacy if “some health condition” came up.
“If the doctors come to me and say there’s a problem, there’s a problem,” Biden speculated in an interview that aired last week.
Biden has not had any extensive tests or medical examinations in recent days, though his doctor has been monitoring Biden for a Covid diagnosis and running related blood work, the official said. His last comprehensive physical was in February.
Confirming that Biden will remain in office, he expressed that he is not worried about being able to exercise his presidential powers.
Democrats across the country began responding and preparing for a future without Biden within minutes and hours of his announcement.
Minnesota Democratic Party Chairman Ken Martin was preparing for a Biden open house in Minneapolis when he heard the news. An Illinois delegate just received a phone call from the Biden campaign asking if he would still support Biden on the convention ballot. News of Biden’s withdrawal came just an hour later.
After learning that, Martin got on the phone with other state party chairs and advocated for the next step: get a unified position within the party to support Harris for president.
“Everybody I’ve talked to right now agrees that we need to unify quickly,” said Martin, who held a conference call with state party chairs Sunday afternoon. “The idea of turning the conversation inside out for four weeks is not something I’m particularly excited about. The sooner we can unite our party behind the ticket, the sooner we can implement this campaign.”
An integral member of Biden’s re-election team, a family member found out after reading a news alert. The person noted how surprised everyone around Biden was, especially some of Biden’s closest allies, after the Sunday shows that boosted his candidacy.
“No one knew. Kamala had no idea,” said the person.
Harris made his phone calls Sunday as many party leaders tried to ensure he faced few obstacles to win the nomination. In addition to Biden, he won the support of former President Bill Clinton and the party’s 2016 presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.
Several prominent Democratic governors, including California’s Gavin Newsom and Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro — both considered possible future presidential candidates — endorsed Harris on Sunday. So did various fringe groups important to Democratic electoral prospects at the presidential and congressional levels.
Biden didn’t want Harris to experience the betrayal he felt when he was vice president and President Barack Obama was throwing his weight behind Hillary Clinton instead of his own candidate. This helps explain why he sends a signal to the rest of the party that he is the choice.
“There are those who do not want him. The president understands how that feels,” said a Biden ally, “so he did the honest thing.”
Even as they began to lay the groundwork for Harris to take over Biden’s campaign and win the nomination, many Biden loyalists in Washington were still wondering how their party felt about him.
“Here’s a man who always talks about dignity,” said a longtime Biden ally. “And what happened to him in a very public setting was unseemly. Where does the president go to regain his dignity?