Joe Biden has announced he will not be standing for re-election in the upcoming American presidential campaign.
The current US President ended his re-election campaign via a statement posted on social media on Sunday, 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 writes, 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.
Not shy of stirring up controversy knowingly either though, 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.
More to follow.