Biden Ends His Campaign

This episode covers President Joe Biden's unexpected decision to end his re-election campaign, setting a new course for the Democratic Party and the upcoming election.

1. President Biden's decision was driven by internal party pressure and poor polling against Donald Trump.
2. Vice President Kamala Harris is positioned to become the new Democratic nominee, although the process is not yet finalized.
3. The episode highlights a significant moment in American politics, reflecting on Biden's impact and the abrupt shift in the election landscape.
4. The Democratic Party faces challenges in uniting behind a new candidate and navigating the complexities of a late campaign reorganization.
5. Biden's decision is seen as both a sacrifice for the greater good and a strategic move to preserve Democratic chances in the upcoming election.

1: The Announcement

President Biden ends his campaign in an unprecedented late-stage decision. This chapter explores the immediate reactions and the strategic implications for the Democratic Party. Brad Milke: "Biden is out. And in a high stakes election, the Democratic Party is effectively starting over from scratch."

2: Behind the Scenes

Insights into the internal pressures and discussions that led to Biden's decision, including significant figures urging him to step down for the party's benefit. Jonathan Karl: "He resisted with every fiber of his body."

3: The Next Steps

The episode discusses the procedural and political steps following Biden's announcement, focusing on Vice President Harris's path to securing the nomination. Mary Alice Parks: "She has to secure the nomination to get herself on ballots."

4: Legacy and Impact

Reflections on what Biden's decision means for his legacy and the immediate future of the Democratic Party. Jonathan Karl: "He put the country first, which is something Donald Trump has never done."

• Stay informed about political developments to understand their implications.
• Engage in discussions about political transitions to better grasp their impact on governance.
• Consider the strategic aspects of political decisions in leadership roles.
• Reflect on the importance of leadership decisions in shaping political landscapes.
• Analyze political events to improve critical thinking and analytical skills.

In a special edition of “Start Here,” we’ll examine President Biden’s decision to exit the race for the White House…and what happens next in the race to replace him.

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Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, Jonathan Karl, Mary Alice Parks

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Brad Milke
It's Monday, July 22, and we've got a whole new presidential race. We start here.

In a historic concession, President Joe Biden drops his reelection bid.

Jonathan Karl
This is a decision that Joe Biden absolutely did not want to make.

Brad Milke
Today we're going to talk about how Biden finally arrived at the decision to be a one term president.

Joe Biden
He made a choice that was in the best interests of the american people.

Brad Milke
And how his endorsement has quickly set a new chain of events into motion.

Mary Alice Parks
She has to secure the nomination to get herself on ballots.

Brad Milke
So how will Americans grapple with an unprecedented change that could shape this country?

From ABC News, this is a special edition of start here. I'm Brad Milke.

I know we keep tossing around the term unprecedented in recent weeks, but this is truly one of the wildest three week spans we have ever seen in american presidential politics. And it started with what will now perhaps go down as the most consequential presidential debate in our nation's history.

Donald Trump
Look, if we finally beat Medicare.

Joe Biden
Thank you, President Biden. President Trump.

Brad Milke
From the point of view of President Biden's campaign team, this June CNN debate was supposed to highlight this president's strengths against an erratic opponent. But when Biden faltered under these bright lights, it set off a political tsunami that seem to pick up speed every minute. The calls for the 81 year old.

Jonathan Karl
To step aside ahead of the party convention in August.

Donald Trump
I'm staying in the race.

Mary Alice Parks
A lot of Democrats were actually shocked by the state of denial.

Brad Milke
And in every single battleground state, he is behind Donald Trump. For many voters, this was a kind of wake up call. Remember, lots of Americans don't pay too much attention to politics until a few months before an election. Well, suddenly there was this moment of, gosh, I knew he was old, but I didn't know he was acting like this.

Joe Biden
Do you have the mental and physical capacity to do it for another four years?

Donald Trump
I wouldn't be running if I didn't think I did.

Brad Milke
In a piece of damage control, Biden quickly agreed to an exclusive interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos where he chalked up his performance to sickness and exhaustion.

Joe Biden
Was this a bad episode or the sign of a more serious condition?

Donald Trump
It was a bad episode.

No, indicated by any serious condition.

Brad Milke
I was exhausted, which wasn't exactly comforting to elected Democrats. Like the dig against the president was he's too old now. What, he's too tired to debate? Well, polls convinced these lawmakers that not only had Biden become vulnerable, but that he was a liability for everyone else. Then former President Donald Trump was shot.

Jonathan Karl
My hand was covered with blood, just absolutely blood all over the place.

Brad Milke
If Trump already had an advantage, well, now it looked like a, a stranglehold on the election. National conventions usually give each candidate a boost, but for the first time in 20 years, the Democrats had scheduled their convention more than a month after the Republicans. They might not see a bounce until it was too late. Well, yesterday on a Sunday afternoon, in a paper statement, President Biden did something that has never been done this late in an election cycle. The sitting president, the presumptive nominee of his party, announced he was dropping out of the race. This is not a drill. Biden is out. And in a high stakes election, the Democratic Party is effectively starting over from scratch. We're going to spend the whole show on this today. Let's start with ABC's chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl. Jon, you keep getting exclusive updates on some of the biggest developments here. Can you just help me understand how the tide has been turning behind the scenes?

Jonathan Karl
This is a decision that Joe Biden absolutely did not want to make. He resisted with every fiber of his body.

Donald Trump
Story goes, Truman said, if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.

Jonathan Karl
He believed that he had what it took to run a winning campaign and to serve another four years.

Donald Trump
Well, guess what?

Last couple weeks, after the last couple weeks, I know what he means.

Jonathan Karl
But the pressure, Bradley, had just been mounting. And as you and I spoke days ago, had really reached a point where it was just not sustainable. As we first reported here on ABC News, Chuck Schumer, the Senate leader, had gone to rehoboth to visit with the president. That happened a week ago Saturday, and very bluntly told him that they were concerned that he would lose to Donald Trump. And not only would he lose to Donald Trump, that it would damage Democrats up and down the line, including Senate candidates and candidates for the House. Schumers message very closely echoed a message that he had also heard. The president had also heard from Hakeem Jeffries. And Nancy Pelosi was also working again privately, behind the scenes, towering figures in the Democratic Party. These are the most important figures in the party right now outside of President Biden. And none of them had gone public to tell Biden that he should get out of the race. But privately, they were making it abundantly clear that they, they believed he needed to get out of the race.

Mike Johnson
The president has been at many events, as we all know, and he just tested positive for Covid.

Jonathan Karl
The president was recovering from COVID in Rehoboth, which limited his ability to have face to face meetings.

But he was beginning to speak with his very inner circle about this decision late Saturday, starting to work on a statement, but really a decision that was not finally made until shortly before he released it on Sunday. This is was very, very close hold. His inner circle had become a very tight and small inner circle at the end.

Brad Milke
In our interview with George Stephanopoulos, Biden basically said, like, the Lord Almighty would have to tell me, Joe, get out of the race. Was there a thing that put him over the edge here that broke the camel's back? Like, we had been seeing swing state polling in certain states was looking very nervy for Democrats. We had heard that donors were starting to withhold funds because they were like, there's no way this guy can win going to waste money. Was there a thing that ended up making this a reality?

Jonathan Karl
Well, the Lord Almighty never actually came down and asked him to resign. I have confirmed that. So it wasn't the Lord Almighty. But look, Biden is a political animal. He knows how the process works. And he looked out and he saw that he just couldn't sustain it. And, Brad, one other thing. I'd learned that there was a group of democratic senators who were preparing to release a statement publicly calling on Joe Biden to get out of the race. This is a group, a large group. I'm told there were about 20 names attached to this letter who have not come out to ask Biden to leave the race. But we're hoping for him to make the decision for himself. But it made it clear that if he didn't make that decision for himself and make it soon, they were prepared to go public. So Biden was facing a situation where he was going to be a man leading a party into what virtually everybody is calling the most consequential election of our lifetimes without a party behind him. And that was just not a situation that was sustainable.

Brad Milke
What was the reaction, whether from, you know, people in DC or the people close to him?

Jonathan Karl
Well, you've seen an outpouring of goodwill from democrats to Joe Biden thanking him for making a courageous decision.

Joe Biden
My heart is heavy for Joe Biden, who I've known for over 37 years.

Kamala Harris
He put the country first, which is something Donald Trump has never done.

Joe Biden
Joe Biden is going to go down as one of the most impactful, effective presidents in our country's history.

Jonathan Karl
One of those praising him in a very heartfelt way was Senator Chris Coons, perhaps among his closest friends in the Senate.

Joe Biden
This was a very hard choice, but as has always been the case with our Joe Biden. He made a choice that was in the best interest of the american people.

Jonathan Karl
And I think perhaps the most moving statement of all that I've seen, most moving reaction came from the president's son, Hunter Bidenhouse. Lengthy statement. Let me just read you a few lines from it. He said of his father, for my entire life, I've looked to my dad in awe. How could he suffer so much heartache and yet give so much of whatever remained of his heart to others, not only in the policies he passed, but in the individual lives he touched? And the statement went on to say this, that unconditional love has been his North Star as a president and as a parenthood. He is unique in public life in that there is no distance between Joe Biden the man and Joe Biden the public servant of the last 54 years. So those were the words from Hunter Biden, part of that inner, inner, inner circle. For Joe Biden, in those final days had been at his fathers side, just as his father had stood by him through all of his problems of drug addiction, the legal challenges, all of that.

Brad Milke
Well, and so now we go from this being a candidate like, you know, one of the two major candidates, too. He's all of a sudden a lame duck president, right? Like he's a few months away from the election that will install somebody that's not him. What does this all end up meaning for his legacy?

Jonathan Karl
There's a lot of goodwill right now from Democrats that he finally made this decision. And it really is, to a degree of self sacrifice. I'm gonna put myself to the side because I want what's best for the party and for the country. But in terms ultimately, of his legacy, I mean, so much depends on what happens in November, Brad, and you will, and you already are hearing it. You will hear, you know, anger from, from Democrats that Joe Biden waited so long to make a decision that absolutely had to be made. In their view, 24 days between the debate and Joe Biden deciding to finally get out of the race. To many Democrats, democratic leaders, this is something that he should have done weeks ago. To many of them, frankly, his decision to run again as president was a mistake, making him by far the oldest party nominee or potential nominee, because he never actually got the nomination for president in american history. Now, by the way, a little bit of a footnote. The oldest presidential nominee from a major party is a guy named Donald Trump, right?

Brad Milke
And who all of a sudden now is having to re envision his entire campaign. If he thought it was against Joe Biden. It ain't anymore. Jonathan Karl, thank you so much.

Jonathan Karl
Thanks, Brad.

Brad Milke
Okay, so that's how it happened. But the even bigger question this morning is, what's next? We'll get into it all after the break.

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Brad Milke
Now. Just a few minutes after he announced he wasn't gonna run for the second term, President Biden also endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris. So how is this all going to work? What happens next? Let's turn to ABC's White House correspondent Mary Alice Parks, who's been following the inner workings of the Democratic Party. Mary Alice can you just explain this to me like I'm a fourth grader? What actually has to happen starting right.

Mary Alice Parks
Now, today, she has to secure the nomination. She has to get herself on ballots. I mean, there was not a primary. We think of these two as a ticket that runs together because they did in 2020. But in the primary, President Biden was just seeking his own reelection, and he himself won delegates. You know, we think so much in this country as we should about the role of voters getting their say and who should be their party nominee. But there's also sort of the practicalities of what that looks like. And at the end of the day, what it really looks like is voters in all these states, you know, democratic voters hold all these primaries. They elect delegates who meet on their behalf at a convention. And formally, normally, it's ceremonially, but ceremonially, formally nominate the party's candidate. Well, now, in this uncharted territory, this really sort of unprecedented moment, we have all these delegates who are being told by President Biden that he would like them to back Vice President Harris. But the rules are written in a way where they don't have to. They have to vote their conscience. Now, they were elected by voters to back President Biden. And the conversations I've had, many of them so far, grappling with the news, are saying that they really feel like it's important to honor President Biden's wishes. I talked to one state party chair who told me that he was having conversations with delegates, and they were saying the same thing that the delegates, he was talking to, the democratic delegates so far, were saying that they plan to back Harris because President Biden said that that's his pick.

But in the end, if another Democrat challenges her, we could see a really chaotic few weeks where the Democratic Party still decides who it wants representing them on ballots in November.

Brad Milke
Well, and this is what's confusing to me because we've been talking about last week, we talked about this virtual convention the Democrats were going to have. This was, like, originally a way to, like, get around some state laws that said, you guys are voting too late. But now it's just kind of, it might be easier to have a nominee before we actually go into the convention. Is that still the plan? Cause I guess I'm trying to figure out, is Kamala Harris, essentially she's gotten all the support. Is she the presumptive nominee or nothing?

Mary Alice Parks
Oh, yes and no. No. I mean, no, but I hesitate. No, because the delegates haven't voted yet, and the rules stipulate that they vote their conscience and they could be swayed. And we did see in the immediate hours after this announcement, her sort of get big time endorsements from people who, frankly, we thought might be the kind of people that would challenge her.

Mike Johnson
I'm endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris because she's ready to step up, bring our party together, go toe to toe with Donald Trump, and win in November.

Mary Alice Parks
I mean, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, but also big organizing groups. I'm thinking about reproductive freedom for all people might not know that group used to be naral, but they are a leading democratic organization that does serious grassroots fundraising. And, of course, we know that the vice president has been so vocal fighting for abortion access, they immediately came out and endorsed her. To me, that was one of those signals that, like, the grassroots groups were lining up behind her. So I think that she has the momentum, as much as you can have momentum in a race that's hours old. But it is not until those delegates actually meet, either virtually or in person, and actually cast their vote that she will become the nominee. And so anything could still happen. We could still see someone challenge her. It is gonna be tough, I think, for a Democrat to want to challenge her at this point to take on the campaign apparatus. And we also know that in the hours right after this announcement, the Biden campaign switched gears and told its staff they all now worked for a campaign to elect the vice president. That's a huge campaign apparatus around the country that she now has in their favor and in her corner.

Brad Milke
Wasn't there also thing like she was the only one who could access the Biden campaign's donation dollar? That seems like a selling point also?

Mary Alice Parks
Yeah, huge. I mean, there's a lot of conversation about the money, but what we know is that the Biden campaign, the Biden Harris campaign already had a joint fundraising agreement with the party. And so legally, it was always gonna be easier for her to access the dollars that had already been raised under the banner of a Biden Harris ticket. Now, I talked to some people who thought a little bit of that was overblown.

In the event that it wasn't her, the party could probably figure out how to move money around. The party would probably just run its own campaign. But it definitely, definitely, definitely makes it simpler if she is the nominee, has easier access to money that was already raised essentially in her name.

Brad Milke
So in theory, though, you're saying there could be a kind of mini primary. Right? Because like Joe Manchin, the former Democrat, now he's independent, he might be democratic again. He apparently called the DNC to ask about the process of challenging Harris for the nomination. So that would be possible then, right? Cause I assume the party would just rather have a nominee. Let's settle on this ASAP.

Mary Alice Parks
Fundamentally, the Democratic National Committee should be separate from a primary until there is a presumptive nominee. And so at this stage, it was interesting to look at the slight differences in the statements between the two entities where the DNC knows that they have to sort of leave room if some other Democrat wants to challenge Harris and to leave room for voters and delegates to not feel like this was mandated from the party.

Kamala Harris
Process will be open and orderly and responsive to the delegates and to all Americans who elected them.

Mary Alice Parks
There's a lot of progressives, for example, that have deep skepticism of the DNC. They felt like the party just picked Hillary Clinton. They feel like the party sort of squashed an early primary this last year against President Biden. And so I think the DNC is very aware that as much as they can help this not look like a coronation, but balance that with wanting to keep the party united and keep things from being too chaotic during a roll call vote or during a convention. It's a tightrope they're trying to walk.

Brad Milke
And then if she's, if she does become the nominee, she's got to like pick a running mate soon, right? Is that what you do next if you're her?

Mary Alice Parks
Yeah. Yeah. You have to have someone else on the ticket. I mean, we are not sure who voters are going to see on their ballot in November. That's still what it comes down to. And there are already names being tossed out, of course.

Senator Mark Kelly in Arizona. Wow. Wouldnt that be nice for Democrats to maybe put Arizona back on the map when theyd been worried it was slipping from them, but theyd won it recently, and thatd be exciting. Mark Kelly is popular or Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania. Key battleground state, a must win battleground state for Democrats. Really? Wow. Hes a popular governor. I mean, the fact that theres already a small sort of shadow campaign, sort of people in DC whispering about who would be a smart pick is fascinating to me. But of course it has to happen.

Harris team has already been thinking about this possibility, thinking about who she's interested in, which relationship she has, who would be beneficial to her. But yes, she has to name someone and figure out who would be an asset for her as she seeks election. Here.

Mike Johnson
This here is the one, the most existential, consequential and important election of our.

Mary Alice Parks
And I do hope, Brad, at some point you know, we all just take stock at, again, the historic nature of her candidacy and what it would mean.

Brad Milke
But to that point, Mary Ellis, the historic nature of all this, like Biden, let's just all be on the same page. Biden is still the president and he's planning on serving out his term. Right. Like that is not, you're not hearing that that's affected by anything here.

Mary Alice Parks
No. He made very clear in his statement that he was gonna focus on finishing his term and is not planning to resign. That does not mean that he won't continue to face calls, potentially growing calls for him to do so. You know, on CNN, we heard speaker of the House Mike Johnson call for him to resign.

Kamala Harris
If he's incapable of running for president, how is he capable of governing right now?

Mary Alice Parks
I think this is going to be a talking point from other Republicans, and it is something that Democrats were worried about in these last few weeks. I talked to several sort of democratic operatives, were anxious about how Biden and how the party would argue that he potentially wasn't strong enough for a second term when he was facing all these calls from within his own party to step aside, step down from the election, but argue that he was strong enough, fit enough, had the stamina to continue to be the commander in chief for the next several months.

That's tricky for Democrats to talk about. It's going to be tricky for Harris as his vice president and potentially the democratic nominee to talk about. But right now, zero indications from President Biden or the White House that he is in any way considering actually resigning the office of the presidency.

Brad Milke
All right, Mary Alice Parks in Washington, thank you so much.

Mary Alice Parks
Yeah, thanks, Brad.

Brad Milke
Remember a few weeks ago when we were like, well, it's the same candidates. You know, it's a rematch. They're saying the same things as four years ago. There's not much drama. Everything has changed now. And of course, we will have it all right here. And for up to the minute updates, hope you are checking ABCnews.com and the ABC News app. I'm Brad Milke. See you tomorrow.

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Brad Milke
And don't miss our weekly bachelor podcast playing the field, hosted by me, Ryan Field. As we break down each episode.