WASHINGTON — At 1:45 p.m. on Sunday, President Joe Biden’s top staff was informed that he dropped out of the 2024 raceAt 1:46 p.m., that message was made public.
Biden never intended to withdraw from the race: until he decided to step aside on Sunday, he was all in.
His campaign planned fundraisers and events and arranged travel for the coming weeks. But even as Biden publicly dug in, insisting he would stay in the race, he was quietly reflecting on the disaster of the past few weeks, on the past three years of his presidency, and on the magnitude of his half-century-long career in politics.
Ultimately, it was the president’s decision alone, and he made it quietly, from his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, sick with COVID-19, with the first lady at his side, as he discussed it with a small circle of people who had been with him for decades.
“This has to be one of the toughest decisions he’s ever made,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., the president’s closest ally in Congress, who spoke with him Sunday. “I know he wanted to fight and he wanted to keep going and he wanted to show that he could beat Donald Trump again, but as he heard more and more input, I think he struggled with what was best for the country,” Coons said in an interview with The Associated Press.
This story is based on interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the president’s thinking in the weeks, days and hours as he made his decision. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
It wasn’t until Saturday night that Biden began to decide that he would not seek re-election. He began writing a letter to the American people.
Biden had been off the campaign trail for a few days, isolated due to COVID-19, when it all began to sink in — his diminishing chances of beating Donald Trump, now that so much of his party has openly rebelled and tried to force him out of the race — not to mention voters’ lingering concerns about his age, which were only exacerbated by the disastrous debate.
Biden was at his beach house with some of his and Jill Biden’s closest aides: chief strategist Mike Donilon, presidential adviser Steve Ricchetti, deputy White House chief of staff Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, senior adviser to the first lady.
By Sunday, his decision was clear. He spoke several times with Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he would endorse. He briefed White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and his longtime aide and campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon.
A small group of senior advisers from both the campaign and the White House were on the 1:45 p.m. call to relay Biden’s decision, with his campaign staff posting the announcement on social media a minute later.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while my intention was to be re-elected, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country to step down and focus solely on fulfilling the duties of my President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote.
About a half hour later came his public endorsement of Harris. It was a carefully choreographed strategy designed to give the president’s initial statement full weight and put a period on the moment before he moved on to the next step.
“Today I want to express my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be our party’s nominee this year,” Biden said in another message on X. “Democrats, it’s time to come together and defeat Trump.”
It’s not like everything was going great before the June 27 debate. In a poll from August 2023 by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs ResearchA whopping 77% of American adults said Biden was too old to be effective for another four years. Not only did 89% of Republicans say that, but so did 69% of Democrats.
And things weren’t getting any better in April. More than half of American adults said Biden’s presidency had hurt the country on issues like the cost of living and immigration.
But Biden had insisted — to himself, to the nation, to his supporters — that he could win over voters if he got out there, told people about his record, explained it to them. Talked to them. Looked them in the eye.
He had a life full of experiences that told him that if he persisted, he would overcome it. His campaign was so confident that they took a detour through the Commission on Presidential Debates to organize a series of showdowns with Trump, under a new set of rules.
That resulted in the Debate of June 27 that set Biden’s downfall in motion. Biden gave nonsensical answers, stopped mid-sentence, and appeared to stare blankly in front of an audience of 51 million. Perhaps most troubling to fellow Democrats, Biden did not pursue Trump’s numerous lies about his involvement in the violence surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, abortion rights, or immigration.
Biden and his team blamed the night on so many different things. He had a cold. He was jet-lagged. He needed more sleep. That night opened the door for his party to push him out.
Biden fought publicly and privately to stay in the race, trying to convince voters he could do it for another four years. He was frustrated by Democrats who publicly turned on him, but even angrier by leaks and anonymous sources who said even former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were working to get him to drop out.
It seemed he had won a few times; the chorus of opponents seemed to die down. He had some well received speeches interspersed with mediocre TV interviews and a day with an extensive press conference in which he demonstrated a nuanced view of policy, but also made a few astonishing blunders.
But the doubts did not go away.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer eventually invited Biden’s top brass to a meeting on July 11 to discuss their concerns. It didn’t go well. Senators voiced their concerns, and almost none said they had confidence in the president. But even afterward, Schumer was concerned that it wouldn’t reach Biden.
After the meeting, Schumer called House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Obama. Schumer decided that day to request a meeting with Biden.
At a July 13 rally in Rehoboth, Schumer told Biden he was there out of love and affection. And he made a personal appeal about Biden’s legacy, the future of the country and the impact the top of the ticket could have on congressional races — and how that could potentially affect the Supreme Court. That same day, Donald Trump’s assassination attempt occurred.
Schumer told the president he didn’t expect Biden to make a decision right away, but that he hoped Biden would think about what he said, a source familiar with the conversation said.
Biden responded, “I need another week,” and the two men embraced.
Things were going full speed ahead until Biden pulled the emergency brake.
The president had lost his voice, but he was recovering well, and his doctor had sent an update on his condition to the public shortly before 1 p.m. His inner circle decided to post the statement on X on Sunday, rather than let it leak for days before he was ready to address the nation, which he is expected to do sometime early this week.
Much of his campaign was caught off guard, and it was clear how little had changed since he withdrew. For hours after the announcement, Biden’s campaign website indicated he was still running, and KamalaHarris.com still linked to Biden’s page.
Even Harris’ statement announcing her intention to succeed Biden was sent by “Joe Biden for President.”
After the public announcement, Zients held a senior staff call, sent an email, and spoke to Biden’s cabinet. The president also held one-on-one conversations.
“Team — I wanted to make sure you saw the attached letter from the President,” Zients wrote in the staff email. “I couldn’t be more proud to work for President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the American people — along with all of you, the greatest White House team in history. There is so much more to do — and as President Biden says, ‘there’s nothing America can’t do — if we do it together.’”
Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat who has called on Biden to resign, was gardening with his wife when the news broke and said he was momentarily “stunned.” Senators texted each other asking if it was really happening.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut attended an event in his state and there was spontaneous applause when it was announced to the crowd that Biden would not run, he said.
There was a sense of excitement and energy in the crowd “that was completely missing,” Blumenthal said.
“It was also, let’s be honest, a sense of relief,” he said. “And a sense of reverence for Joe Biden.”
On Sunday evening, Biden officially switched to Harris as president.
O’Malley Dillon told campaign staff their jobs were safe as the operation was transformed into a campaign for Harris.
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Associated Press editor Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.