President Joe Biden announced on Sunday, Jul. 21 (United States time) that he will end his presidential re-election campaign.

He released a letter on his social media accounts.

pic.twitter.com/RMIRvlSOYw

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024

Calling it "the greatest honor of his life" to have served as president, he said he had initially planned to seek reelection, but now believed it was "in the best interest of my party and the country" to stand down and "focus solely" on fulfilling his duties as president for the remainder of his term, which last until early January 2025.

He added that he would address the nation later in the week to provide more detail.

Jarring development

Biden’s decision to exit the race less than a month before his party’s convention and mere months before voters cast their votes in November is unprecedented in the modern political era.

The development is the latest in a series of jarring developments that has made the 2024 presidential race the most chaotic in living memory.

Biden's opponent, Donald Trump, easily won the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump delivered a speech accepting the Republican nomination in Milwaukee on Jul. 18, five days after surviving an assassination attempt.

Biden, on the other hand, was in self-isolation back home after testing positive for Covid-19.

Endorsement deal

About 20 minutes after the initial post, Biden posted again, saying that he was endorsing his Vice President, Kamala Harris, to replace him.

Saying that choosing her was his "first decision as party nominee" and his "best decision", he said he fully supported her and endorsed her to be the Democratic Party's nominee, adding: "It's time to come together and beat Trump. Let's do this."

My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best… pic.twitter.com/x8DnvuImJV

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024

His letter to the nation began by touting his achievements in the past three-and-a-half years, such as in health care, climate legislation, and domestic investments, saying that "America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today".

He credited "the American people", saying that together they overcame a pandemic and economic crisis, as well as "protected and preserved our democracy".

Shaky and halting

Biden stepped down after several months of uncertainty.

As the oldest serving U.S. president in history, grumblings about his age and his health have long been present.

But after a troubling debate performance against Republican candidate and former president Trump, 78, on Jun. 27, Biden, 81, was seen as “shaky” and “halting”.

Biden initially waved off these concerns, as he said he was tired after recovering from a cold.

However, the concerns were compounded after an incident where Biden called Harris “Vice President Trump” during a press conference, and referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin”.

The U.S. president has been facing increasing pressure from senior Democrats to step down, and has finally relented.

Harris on board

Should Biden step down immediately, Harris would be first in line to replace him.

But she is not automatically a shoo-in.

Although Biden has endorsed Harris, she may have to face an accelerated primary process, which could see other Democrats challenging her to be the party's nominee.

There is a possibility that other Democrats might be vying for her place, and should that occur, they have just under a month to do so before the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19.

Traditionally, the convention was held so that the different candidates in a party can hash out their differences and be voted on by party delegates.

A fictional version of this process was the subject of the final two episodes of the sixth season of the “West Wing”, which showed a contested, or brokered, convention, and even included a late entrant to the contest.

In recent decades, such brokered conventions were avoided precisely because of the chaos that the TV show portrayed.

The last brokered convention took place in 1952, and resulted in the nomination of Democrat Adlai Stevenson, who lost to Dwight Eisenhower.

Top image via Joe Biden/X