Vice President Kamala Harris has announced that she would seek the Democratic nomination for president following Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 race and endorse her.
“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said in a statement on Sunday.
Joe Biden announced he will not be standing for re-election in the upcoming American presidential campaign at around 6.46pm (GMT) on Sunday.
The current US President ended his re-election campaign via a statement posted on social media, saying “it is in the best interest of my party and the country”.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he wrote, addressing the American people.
“And while it as been my intention to seek re election, 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.”
He backed his Vice President as his replacement.
“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 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. Let’s do this,” he wrote on X..
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More of the 81-year-old President’s Democratic colleagues have been calling on him to end his re-election bid in recent weeks, particularly after two excruciating verbal slip-ups he made earlier this month.
The first came during a Nato summit event on Thursday when Mr Biden mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Mr Biden said at summit in Washington, drawing gasps from those in the room before correcting himself.
Later he mixed up the name of his vice president, Kamala Harris, and his Republican rival Donald Trump.
Responded to a question about his confidence in Ms Harris at a solo press conference, Mr Biden said: “Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if she was not qualified to be president. So start there.” This time he failed to correct the gaffe.
Joe Biden confuses Kamala Harris with former President Trump
Reacting to the news, Donald Trump posted on his platform Truth Social: “Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for president, and is certainly not fit to serve – and never was!”
“He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement.
“All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President, and he wasn’t.
“We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary – who is also currently the chancellor for Queen’s University Belfast, released a statement thanking President Biden for his service and joining him in endorsing Vice President Harris.
“[We] will do whatever we can to support her,” they said.
“We’ve lived through many ups and downs, but nothing has made us more worried for our country than the threat posed by a second Trump term. He has promised to be a dictator on day one, and the recent ruling by his servile Supreme Court will only embolden him to further shred the Constitution. Now is the time to support Kamala Harris and fight with everything we’ve got to elect her. America’s future depends on it.”
Niall Stanage, a US-based journalist from Northern Ireland who reports on The White House, said President Biden’s decision is “an historic moment” in American politics.
He told Sky News: “This is the first president since Lyndon Johnson in the late 1960s to decide against a run for re-election – more dramatic, if anything, in President Biden’s case in deciding to step aside.
“I think it’s an effort to perhaps protect his legacy but also a recognition that following that catastrophic debate performance on June 27, he was almost inevitably going to lose to Donald Trump if he pressed ahead. And even I think his staunchest allies would have thought that would be a very sad way to go out for a man who has been in public service for half a century.”
He said Biden’s decision to remain in the White House for now meant he was in “a tricky situation to say the very least”.
“Although he doesn’t really go into the details of why he is not running, everyone saw the worrying signs as far as his faculty was concerned in that debate performance I just mentioned,” he added.
“So in effect he is saying that he accepts the criticism that he wouldn’t be capable of serving a second term or at least he accepts that perception.
“And I think it is legitimate then to question whether it is prudent for him to remain in the Oval Office until January of next year when the next president will be inaugurated.
“Now I do think it’s important to disentangle that from the fact that Trump is saying it and Republicans are saying it in order to get some political advantage as well and to try to stick the Democrats generally with the charge of irresponsibility.”
Not shy of stirring up controversy knowingly, the Commander In Chief will be remembered across the island of Ireland for various off-the-cuff remarks he made during his visit here last year.
In a fleeting visit to Northern Ireland last April – which lasted less than 24 hours – he gave a speech at Ulster University’s new Belfast campus, where he expressed hopes for a return to power-sharing at Stormont, as he praised 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement.
In a landmark address, he described how Belfast has transformed from the city he visited in 1991, saying it was an “incredible testament to the power and the possibilities of peace”.
He then visited the Republic, including his ancestral homeplace of Ballina in Co Mayo.
In May 2023, after the trip, he told supporters he came to Ireland to “make sure the Brits didn’t screw around” during a speech in New York.
He also joked about getting into trouble with the Catholic Church for the way he blesses himself these days.
Ireland’s premier (Taoiseach) Simon Harris thanked Mr Biden following Sunday’s news.
He said Mr Biden had expressed a “fierce pride” in his Irish ancestry and had acted as a voice for “reason, effective multilateralism and shared solutions”.
“Joe Biden, in all the offices he has held, has always been an unwavering voice and passionate worker for peace on the island of Ireland and our country owes him a great debt for this,” he said.
“On a personal level, President Biden is a proud American with an Irish soul. When he arrived into Belfast, Louth and Mayo last year he himself said it was like coming home.
“The outpouring of love and support from the public, even in the pouring Irish rain, from Carlingford to Ballina was testament to how highly the President is held in his ancestral home.”
Earlier Ireland’s deputy premier reacted to Mr Biden’s withdrawal decision with “sadness and admiration”.
Tanaiste Micheal Martin described Mr Biden as an “abiding friend of Ireland”.
“I heard the news of President Biden’s decision with both sadness and admiration,” Mr Martin said in a post on the social network X, formerly Twitter.
“He has been an abiding friend of Ireland, providing invaluable support for peace and prosperity on this island.
“His visit last year will long be remembered as a powerful & joyous celebration of our relationship with the US
“This has no doubt been the toughest of calls, but one done, as ever, with dignity and class.
“I know that the people of Ireland will wish President Biden the very best.”