Biden drops out of 2024 presidential election, endorses Kamala Harris as Democratic nominee

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President Joe Biden on Sunday dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party's nominee, bowing to weeks of growing pressure by his own party members to quit his re-election bid against former President Donald Trump. "It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President," Biden wrote in a post on the social media site X. "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 wrote. "I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision," wrote Biden, whose bombshell decision came after a sharp spike in recent days in the number of congressional Democrats publicly calling for him to step aside for another nominee. Biden in a subsequent tweet wrote that his "very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President." "And it's been the best decision I've made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it's time to come together and beat Trump," Biden wrote. "Let's do this." Harris in a statement said, "I am honored to have the President's endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination." Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a joint statement from the Democratic power couple, said, "We are honored the join the President in endorsing Vice President Harris and will do whatever we can to support her." Biden, who has been isolated at his Rehoboth, Delaware, beach home after being diagnosed with Covid-19, and Harris spoke on Sunday before he announced he would drop out of the election race. NBC News reported that Biden at 1:45 p.m. ET Sunday told his senior campaign team that he had changed his mind about remaining in the contest. Trump in a phone interview with NBC News said of Biden's decision, "He should never have been there in the first place." "He should have stayed in his basement," said Trump, who was formally nominated as the Republican Party's candidate last week, days after narrowly avoiding being killed in an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on July 13. Democratic National Committee Jamie Harrison in a statement said, "In the coming days, the Party will undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November." "This process will be governed by established rules and procedures of the Party. Our delegates are prepared to take seriously their responsibility in swiftly delivering a candidate to the American people," Harrison said.