USA 2024: – 105, Biden out. The Democrats seek a nominee, Harris in pole

USA 2024 – The withdrawal of US President Joe Biden from the White House race towards USA 2024 reopens the race for the Democratic nomination, with his deputy Kamala Harris in pole position. Harris has already received the endorsement of her boss and numerous party figures, but will now have to earn the nomination at the mid-August Democratic convention in Chicago.

Even if it creates uncertainty and confusion, Biden’s decision is a positive shock for the Democrats: while a small crowd gathered in front of the White House chanting ‘Thank you, Joe’ for what he did as president and for retiring, almost 50 million dollars in small donations arrived in the Harris campaign coffers in a few hours, before midnight US time.

In a letter posted on X mid-Sunday evening in Italy, Biden wrote: ‘It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve as president. And while it was my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country to retire and focus only on my duties as president for the remainder of the term’.

Among his first upcoming engagements is a visit to Washington by Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu: a thorny meeting on Tuesday, followed by Netanyahu’s speech in Congress on Wednesday.

With Biden gone from the US 2024 scene, there remain for the Democrats ‘a lot of open questions’, observe the US liberal media: from the choice of candidate to how to proceed in largely uncharted territory. But the Republican campaign of Donald Trump and JD Vance is also losing certainties and points of reference, to the point that the tycoon is demanding ‘compensation for fraud’, because ‘everybody knew Joe couldn’t do it and now we have to start all over again’.

USA 2024: Harris or not Harris? this is a dilemma; even the how is unclear
In the letter, Biden does not endorse his deputy or anyone else. But, in a later message on X, the president gives his full support and endorsement to Harris ‘to win our party’s nomination this year’: ‘It’s time to stand together and beat Trump’.

A studied difference: the letter is an official act, a communication from the president to the citizens (and the president intends to address the nation in the coming days and explain his decision). Instead, the message on X comes from the candidate ‘in pectore’ offering his indication to his delegates and his party.

It remains, however, to be determined who the Democratic candidate for the White House will be and how he will be designated. Contacts are feverish in these hours. Between the Democratic National Committee and party notables. There are those who, though listed, are stepping aside to support Harris – Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer – and those who, after having left the Democratic Party to become independent and having asked Biden for a step back, are considering whether to run, such as Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

The Democratic National Committee now ensures ‘a transparent and orderly process’ to select the presidential candidate and his deputy. First, it will have to be seen whether there will be anyone to challenge Harris, in view of the convention that could be ‘open’, i.e. start without the candidate already being nominated. This is a virtually unprecedented situation, with some similarities to 1968 (Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision not to run again and the assassination of Robert Kennedy).

Harris has received a lot of support, from important figures such as the Clintons, Bill and Hillary, who, it seems, were not in favour of Biden’s withdrawal. But other leading figures in the Democratic universe, such as Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, remain neutral, also and perhaps above all to avoid the impression of a candidate ‘dropped from above’.

The situation is volatile and could remain so until the convention in Chicago, from 19 to 22 August. Harris has on her side the experience in the White House, the fact of being a woman – it would be the first time, a president of the United States – and of having dual minority ancestry, African-American and Asian; but she has against her a low popularity and having been an opaque deputy, who has certainly not shone on the immigration dossier that was somewhat poisonously entrusted to her.

USA 2024: reactions to Biden’s withdrawal; Trump and Vance, the fun is over
The reactions of the Republican ticket, presidential candidate Donald Trump and his deputy JD Vance, are immediate and virulent. On his Truth social media site, the tycoon wrote: ‘Dishonest Joe Biden was unfit to run for president, and certainly unfit to serve (and never has been!). He only achieved the presidency through lies, fake news, and without ever leaving his basement. Everyone around him, including his doctor and the media, knew he wasn’t fit to be president, and he wasn’t.’

House Speaker Mike Johnson, reviving an argument already made by Vance, asserts that Biden should resign immediately, based on the assertion that ‘If he can’t be president for a second term, he can’t be president now either’. The argument has no legal or medical basis and is pure political propaganda: being president for another six months is one thing, being president for four and a half years is quite another; and, besides, Biden can concentrate on the tasks of the presidency from now on and will not have to take on the labours of the election campaign.

Biden has already made it clear that he intends to remain in office until the end of his term. And the White House was quick to point out that his decision was not dictated by medical considerations. The impression is that the Republicans preferred to have Biden as a rival, considering him weak and, practically, doomed to defeat.

USA 2024: Biden’s withdrawal, how it came about
Biden’s withdrawal thus brings to an end three weeks of great turmoil in the Democratic Party, after the disastrous outcome of the live televised debate between Biden and Trump on 27 June, which had exposed the fragility of the candidacy of the president, who will be 82 years old a few days after the vote on 5 November.

Since the first days after the debate, the tamtam of urging Biden to withdraw had started, first in the media, with editorials in the New York Times and the Washington Post, and then among congressmen and senators, so as not to jeopardise the presidential race and the Democrats’ chances of winning the House and the Senate.

The president resisted for three weeks, but in the end pressure from congressmen and senators, from figures like Obama and Pelosi, the reticence of donors who had frozen 90 million dollars, the trend of the polls and, finally, the opinion of his family convinced him.

The Covid that forced him into isolation in the last few days, tearing him away from the campaign, was the final blow, showing a fragile and weak president and reinforcing the perception that his chances of winning in November were now slim.

In seclusion at Rehoboth Beach, in his Delaware beach house, the president reflected, alone and with family members. The final decision would have matured, according to US media reconstruction, on Saturday evening and his staff would have been informed only on Sunday morning, shortly before the official announcement.

Almost immediately, the chorus of pressure for him to step down turned into a chorus of appreciation for what he had done and for his decision: party notables – those urging a step back -, ordinary people and even international leaders.

And the hunt for a deputy, should Harris be the nominee, has already begun. On the list of favourites are Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, but those dreaming of an all-pink ticket think of North Carolina Governors Roy Cooper and Michigan Governor Whitmer. Unlikely, however, a pair of women, although USA 2024 has already accustomed us to twists and turns.