How Biden’s re-election campaign fell apart – a timeline of three tumultuous weeks
They may go down as the wildest three weeks in the history of the US presidency, when the prospects of Joe Biden’s candidacy surviving until polling day seemed to change from day to day – sometimes even from hour to hour.
Here’s a summary of the milestone events in an rollercoaster period in US politics. It began with a political debate on national TV that triggered a Democratic rebellion, took in a shocking assassination attempt on Donald Trump and ended with Biden withdrawing his 2024 candidacy and endorsing his deputy Kamala Harris.
27 June
Biden and Donald Trump face off in the earliest debate ever staged between two main candidates in a presidential election, largely in response to demands by a White House team eager to allay doubts over the president’s advanced age (81) and suspicions that his cognitive powers are fading. Instead, Biden puts in a perplexing performance that intensifies the concerns. Over 90 minutes, he appears at times confused, mangles his sentences, repeatedly loses his train of thought and fails to combat a rush of lies from a bullishly confident Trump, who cannot conceal his glee over his rival’s discomfiture. Democratic operatives exchange frantic messages calling for Biden to abandon his campaign even while the debate unfolds.
Related: Al Sharpton on Joe Biden’s re-election bid: ‘Let him make up his mind’
28 June
The president, realising his campaign is suddenly in deep trouble, tries to launch a counteroffensive, telling a rally of supporters in North Carolina that he is staying in the race. “I know I’m not a young man,” he shouts – reading his remarks from a teleprompter. “I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know … When you get knocked down, you get back up!”
Few are convinced. Within hours, the New York Times, the most influential newspaper in the US, publishes a searing editorial telling Biden to step aside, calling his candidacy a “reckless gamble” that risks a second Trump presidency.
3 July
As pressure mounts and with a Democratic member of Congress, Lloyd Doggett of Texas, already having called for him to withdraw, Biden meets virtually with state governors in an effort to set minds at rest. But although he wins statements of support, doubts persist after it is reported that he tells them that he is trying to refrain from holding events after 8pm to conserve energy. There is unease at his response when one governor, Josh Green of Hawaii – a medical doctor – inquires about his health, eliciting the puzzling response: “It’s just my brain.”
5 July
Biden gives his first mainstream interview since the debate, an eagerly awaited 22-minute affair with George Stephanopoulos of ABC in a school library in Wisconsin. It is an improvement on the disastrous debate showing but hardly reassuring. The president declares that only the “Lord almighty” could persuade him to step aside from the race. Many Democrats also express deep misgiving about his response to being asked how he would feel if he ran against Trump in November only to lose. “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did as good a job as I know I can do – that’s what this is about,” he replies. Some condemn the statement as out of touch, given the Democratic fears of a second Trump presidency.
7 July
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, holds crisis talks with senior party House members, at least four of whom say the president should step aside as candidate.
8 July
Biden strikes back in anger. As members of Congress return to Washington DC after a recess, the president sends a letter to the entire Democratic congressional contingent telling them he is unequivocally committed to staying in the race and reaffirming his belief that he can beat Trump. He follows up with an unscheduled live telephone interview to MSNBC’s Morning Joe programme in which he throws down the gauntlet to his critics by telling them to “challenge me at the [Democratic] convention”, due to take place in Chicago in August. Jeffries meets with a full complement of House Democrats on Capitol Hill, some of whom tearfully voice fears about the effect Biden’s plunging popularity in the polls might have on their own election prospects. Yet many Democrats appear resigned to Biden staying on the ticket.
10 July
With the mutiny apparently fizzling out, the New York Times gives it renewed impetus by publishing an opinion article from George Clooney, one of the Democrats’ biggest fundraisers, urging Biden to stand down. Proclaiming his love and admiration for the president, Clooney cites his personal experience of a fundraising event in Hollywood last month attended by Biden, who he says cut the same disturbingly diminished figure that millions saw on the debate stage in Atlanta on 27 June.
11 July
With the pressure on and mounting numbers of Democrats calling for his withdrawal, Biden holds a rare news conference marking the close of Nato’s 75th anniversary conference in Washington DC. Facing massed ranks of international journalists and speaking for an hour without the aid of a teleprompter, the president gives an admirable – yet still flawed – performance. He expounds on intricate details of foreign and economic policy. At the same time, he commits embarrassing gaffes, referring to his vice-president, Kamala Harris, as “Vice-President Trump” without correcting himself, having earlier mistakenly introduced the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as “President Putin”. The performance seems enough to buy him time.
13 July
Donald Trump survives an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler county, Pennsylvania, a stunning development that puts the discussions on Biden’s candidacy on hold just as the president has been holding talks on his future with leading party figures, including Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader.
14 July
Biden’s staff temporarily suspends all campaign events and political advertising in a display of solidarity over the attempt on Trump’s life. The president gives a prime-time televised speech from the White House urging that both parties rhetorically “lower the temperature” to stave off a rise in political violence.
15 July
With no Democrats having called for Biden’s withdrawal since the assassination attempt on Trump, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) tries to lock in the presidential nomination for him by unveiling plans for an early electronic roll call of delegates – meaning that the president would effectively have secured his candidacy weeks before the party’s convention starts on 19 August. The plan triggers an immediate backlash among Democrats who still believe Biden must step aside.
Meanwhile, Biden gives an arresting answer to NBC’s Lester Holt in another prime-time interview when asked who he listens to on whether he should remain or drop out of the race. “Me,” he replies. “I’ve been doing this a long time.”
17 July
While campaigning in Nevada, the president tests positive for Covid and immediately returns to his home in Delaware to isolate. The announcement seems to mark an end to the brief respite in the efforts to persuade him to end his candidacy. The DNC, reportedly following an intervention by Schumer, announces it is postponing the planned electronic roll call by at least a week – giving Biden’s critics more time to muster.
On the same day, senior Democrats including Adam Schiff, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in California, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the House majority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, privately confront Biden about continuing his re-election bid.
18 July
With Trump preparing to accept the Republican nomination in at the GOP convention in Milwaukee, reports emerge that Biden is at least listening to arguments that he should withdraw and asking if Harris would fare better. It is also reported that Barack Obama has told associates that he believes the president’s path to winning the election has greatly diminished and that he should reconsider the viability of his campaign.
19 July
Ten congressional Democrats – nine House members and one senator – call for Biden to stand aside as the candidate, bringing the total who have done so publicly to 32. The president insist he will continue as the nominee and is ready to resume campaigning after isolating from Covid, seemingly confounding speculation that he could be preparing a withdrawal announcement.
Biden reiterates that he will stay in the race. The Biden campaign chair, Jen O’Malley, says Biden is “absolutely” in the race. “Joe Biden is more committed than ever to beat Donald Trump,” she says.
21 July
Biden announces that he will not seek re-election, and endorsed his vice-president, Kamala Harris, aiming to avoid further party chaos. Earlier on Sunday, Biden lost the support of the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat turned independent, who urged Biden to drop out but called for an “open process” to select a successor.
“While it has 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 focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” Biden says in a letter announcing his decision.
Democrats will hold their convention in Chicago in August, in what was expected to be a Biden coronation but which will now free 4,700 delegates to select a candidate. They are not obliged to select Harris. Ohers potentially waiting in the wings include the California governor Gavin Newsom, Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania.
Donald Trump responded to Biden’s announcement, saying his ex-rival was not fit to run for president and “not fit to serve”, Trump added: “We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly.”
Read more about Joe Biden dropping out of the 2024 election:
