Later that day, Biden’s interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos did little to repair the damage from the debate. At times, Biden faltered, sidestepped questions and once again failed to reassure supporters that he was equipped to lead the country.
The ABC interview came after polls showing support for the president eroding.
As weeks wore on, a trickle of calls for the president to step aside grew into a steady stream — including from top leaders in his own party.
Actor George Clooney, a major Democratic donor and fundraiser, said July 10 that Democrats are “not going to win in November with this president.” Clooney spelled out his reasoning in an op-ed for the New York Times under the headline “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.”
On Wednesday, Rep. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank became the most prominent Democrat in Congress up to that point to call on Biden to make way for a new candidate.
“A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump in November,” Schiff said.
Schiff’s statement came the same day a poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reported that nearly two-thirds of Democrats surveyed said Biden should withdraw from the race.
Biden’s decision to withdraw fundamentally reshapes the 2024 campaign for both Democrats and Republicans, and could provide a welcome boost for Democrats who’ve faced flagging support from a relatively apathetic electorate.
Polls have repeatedly shown that many Americans did not welcome a repeat of 2020’s Biden-Trump contest. Biden in particular struggled to surmount voters’ concerns that he would be fit to govern the country well into his 80s.
Biden also faced backlash, particularly from young voters and voters of color, for his handling of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Though Biden easily won every Democratic primary so far, thousands of disgruntled Americans voted “uncommitted” in several states, in an effort by pro-Palestinian protesters to register their discontent over his support of Israel.
The president’s single term in office will cap a government career that began over 50 years ago, when Biden was elected to a Delaware County Council seat in his home state of Pennsylvania. He represented Delaware in the Senate 36 years, cultivating close political relationships with a broad spectrum of Republican and Democratic Senate colleagues. He also led the influential Senate Judiciary Committee, which confirmed Justice Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court despite a widely publicized controversy involving sexual harassment allegations.
During his tenure as senator, Biden long harbored presidential aspirations, running for the highest office in 1988 and again in 2008 before accepting former President Obama’s invitation to serve as vice president.
After two terms as second-in-command, Biden once again launched his own presidential bid in 2020, surging from the middle of the pack of Democratic candidates to clinch the nomination. The 2020 election results, taking place amid the historic COVID-19 pandemic, came down to razor-thin margins in a handful of key swing states, with the final count drawing out for several days.
Even before he took office, Biden faced unprecedented challenges to his presidency when a group of pro-Trump rioters broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the day Congress was scheduled to certify the election results.
Biden presided over a sharply divided Congress, but pushed through pandemic relief stimulus packages and signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act — to date the nation’s largest set of initiatives to combat climate change. He also led a chaotic removal of American troops from Afghanistan that drew criticism from many in his own party.
Biden’s decision to step aside echoed the actions 56 years earlier of another Democratic president who held office during a turbulent time.
Speaking from the White House on March 31, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson said he had to devote himself to the Vietnam War and divisive domestic issues. “Accordingly,” he said, “I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”
Doggett alluded to Johnson, a fellow Texan, when he urged Biden to make way for new leadership for the good of the country: “Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw. President Biden should do the same.”
