Breaking News : Biden Drops Out of Presidential Race
Breaking News : Biden Drops Out of Presidential Race
Joe Biden Drop out of Presidential race
American President
How US President Joe Biden's bid for re-election came to an end
Joe Biden Drop out of Presidential race
American President
How US President Joe Biden's bid for re-election came to an end
Transcript
00:00In one of the most monumental political implosions in American history, President Biden has dropped
00:08out of the 2024 presidential race.
00:12The decision came weeks after a disastrous debate performance triggered a wave of panic
00:17among fellow Democrats.
00:19Then, in the aftermath of an assassination attempt that helped elevate Donald Trump to
00:24hero status among his already fervent base, calls among Democrats for Biden to step aside
00:29reached a breaking point.
00:31I'm not sure the word unprecedented really does this justice.
00:35We have just never seen a political story like this.
00:38Several stark moments during Biden's debate showdown with Trump on June 27th brought his
00:43age and mental acuity into question, even among his staunchest supporters.
00:48Dealing with everything we have to do with, uh, look, if we finally beat Medicare.
00:57A few members of Congress came out pretty early after the debate performance.
01:02Then the Biden folks seemed to be trying to manage it.
01:06Biden did a bunch of calls with donors.
01:08He did some events.
01:09He did an interview on ABC.
01:11And if you stay in and Trump is elected and everything you're warning about comes to pass,
01:15how will you feel in January?
01:18I feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do.
01:24That's what this is about.
01:26The president's struggles continued in the weeks following the debate.
01:29Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin.
01:31President Putin.
01:32He's going to beat President Putin.
01:35President Zelensky.
01:36I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president.
01:41After the debate went so badly, he had no margin for error at those events.
01:46Democrats and voters who were already worried about him and saw those appearances just did
01:50not find them reassuring enough to go forward.
01:53One by one, top Democrats went public with their concerns.
01:58The unrest also spread to the party's donors, including calls for Biden to step aside from
02:03Netflix founder Reed Hastings and actor George Clooney.
02:07The president forcefully pushed back on questions about his viability as a candidate in a closely
02:12watched press conference on July 11th.
02:16I'm not in this for my legacy.
02:19I'm in this to complete the job I started.
02:22Then, on July 13th,
02:30the assassination attempt on Donald Trump galvanized his supporters.
02:35An energized GOP unified around the former president at the Republican National Convention
02:40the following week.
02:41The contrast you saw was a very united Republican Party at a moment when the Democrats were
02:47very divided and struggling.
02:50Meanwhile, in Las Vegas,
02:51The president has been at many events, as we all know, and he just tested positive for COVID.
03:01Arriving in Delaware to self-isolate, Biden appeared to struggle to get into a car after
03:05disembarking from Air Force One.
03:08Democrat leaders, fearing steep losses in down-ballot congressional races, ramped up
03:13their efforts to oust Biden from the race.
03:16Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pushed for
03:20Democratic officials to delay formally naming Biden as the party's nominee.
03:24People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
03:28Representative Adam Schiff became one of the highest-profile Democrats to publicly call
03:32on Biden to bow out.
03:34Good afternoon.
03:35I'm not sure there was anything he could do after that debate.
03:39People were so shocked and scared.
03:43And the bottom just fell out very quickly on the money.
03:47And people couldn't unsee it.
03:48They saw what happened, and they were just so worried that something like that would
03:52happen again and cost them not just the White House, but also Congress.
03:59Concerns about Biden's age and mental acuity are not new.
04:02They came up when he ran for president against Trump in 2019, at age 76.
04:07You just said two minutes ago that they would have to buy in.
04:10You said they would have to buy in.
04:12Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago?
04:17During Biden's years in the White House, his staff largely shielded the president from
04:21the media.
04:22Compared to recent presidents, President Biden had done less interviews, he had done less
04:27lengthy press conferences, and there have been just less opportunities for the press
04:30to question him in a lengthy format.
04:33His age came under fresh scrutiny in February, when the special counsel investigating Biden's
04:37handling of classified documents released a report in which he's described as a sympathetic,
04:43well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.
04:47My memory is not good.
04:48My memory is fine.
04:49My memory, take a look at what I've done since I've become president.
04:53None of you thought I could pass any of the things I got passed.
04:56Less than a month before the June 27th debate, the Wall Street Journal reported, based on
05:00dozens of interviews, that the president had shown signs of slipping.
05:04Democrats are looking not just at the presidency, but also whether they can hold the Senate
05:09and whether they could win back the House.
05:11The Republicans are very energized, they're very united, they're very clearly behind
05:16their candidate, and they're heading into the fall election season feeling really confident.
05:22And Democrats now have to go through a really tough thing.
05:26And maybe they come out the other side of that really unified, that they can get folks
05:29on board, that they can also be energized.
05:31But that's more of an open question right now.