After weeks of crisis talks and a growing groundswell of Democrats and allies claiming things would work out fine, Joe Biden made a shocking last-minute decision to withdraw from the presidential race.
The 81-year-old president was isolating at his $3.4 million home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, because of COVID when he and his shrinking circle of friends wrote a letter saying it was time to step aside.
Donors had raised millions of dollars, the list of Democrats calling on him to withdraw grew longer by the day, and polls showed his chances of beating Donald Trump were shrinking after his disastrous debate performance.
Jill Biden was there when her husband made the historic decision and caved in to mounting pressure.
The question now is what prompted him to finally take this extraordinary step, which surprised some of his White House staff and most of the people working on his re-election campaign.
Jill Biden was with her husband Joe Biden in Rehoboth as he made his decision on the 2024 presidential election — above the couple at their beachfront home in February
On Saturday night, Biden called together two men who have been with him since his political beginnings: advisers Steve Ricchetti and Mike Donilon. They have been with him through the best of times — his first years as a senator — to the worst of times — the death of his son, Beau Biden.
The president and first lady were also accompanied by their closest aides Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, whom they call “family.”
Biden asked Ricchetti and Donilon to draft a letter and begin the process of how to make a public announcement, DailyMail.com confirmed. And the president also told his family.
It suggests that Biden ultimately weighed the evidence against him and concluded he could not proceed in the best interests of the party.
He had insisted he would step aside only if he was shown polls showing Kamala Harris would outperform Trump in the general election, or if he developed a “medical condition.”
Was he given statistics that showed he was doomed to failure in November? Did he decide he wasn’t healthy enough to serve another four years? Or did he make a selfless decision based on the well-being of the party’s future?
At 1:45 p.m. on Sunday, Biden, still at his Delaware beach house, began calling his senior White House staff and the campaign. He had already spoken to Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
In every conversation he let slip his surprise: he was dropping out of the presidential race.
At 1:46 p.m., he posted a letter from the president to his campaign account announcing his decision, while he was still in talks with his staff.
Most of his aides — both in the White House and on the campaign trail — were shocked. They heard the news online and got the message when the @JoeBiden account posted the president’s letter.
“Nobody knew until the tweet went out,” a campaign official told DailyMail.com. “That to me is an insane way to treat the 1,300 people who work for you on the campaign.”
Presidential adviser Steve Ricchetti (left) and campaign adviser Mike Donilon (right) were called to Rehoboth Beach to help Biden write the letter about his decision
It was the cap to a chaotic 48 hours for the Biden family, who had hunkered down behind their patriarch with a small, intimate circle of longtime aides who supported them, some even reporting to Jill Biden about aides they saw as disloyal.
Meanwhile, Biden had gone from being angry about the pressure his party was exerting to accepting the situation.
And once he made his final decision on Saturday night, the rest happened quickly.
Biden called Harris directly to tell her the news.
He also reportedly had one-on-one meetings with White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon. He is also expected to speak with his cabinet, members of Congress, governors and supporters.
But it all happened so quickly that many employees felt hurt by the way they heard the news, even though they were not surprised by it.
It was already clear. Nearly 40 Democratic lawmakers had called on Biden to drop out of the race. Major donors threatened to withdraw their support. Actor George Clooney wrote an op-ed in the New York Times calling on Biden to resign. And Barack Obama was reportedly working behind the scenes to force Biden out.
It “had to happen,” said one Democratic consultant. “But he just dropped a bomb. It’s not surprising, but it’s shocking.”
Another worker said people felt “a mix of relief, gratitude and hope.”
The campaign held a meeting at 5pm with all employees required to attend to reassure staff that they still had their jobs.
Campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon acknowledged that it was “difficult for staff who heard the news while they were on the job or knocking on doors, but it was important for the president to hear it in his own words.”
President Joe Biden, from left, walks with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed and White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt in April
Anthony Bernal, senior adviser to Jill Biden, and Annie Tomasini, deputy chief of staff, are leaving the White House together in February — he leads the East Wing; she leads the West Wing
Publicly, his advisers are loyal to Biden.
Many have taken to television and social media to defend the president since his disastrous performance in the debate against Donald Trump 24 days ago, claiming that Biden is the party’s nominee and that he plans to retain that nominee.
Since the June 26 debate, staff have tried to continue with their daily work and resisted reports that Biden would withdraw.
According to ‘Fanfiction,’ deputy spokesman Andrew Bates advised Democrats to “keep the faith” following reports that Biden would withdraw this weekend.
Even on Sunday morning, the campaign message was that Biden was doing everything he could to win.
Campaign chairman Cedric Richmond said Sunday morning on CBS’s Face the Nation: “I want to be crystal clear. He’s made a decision and that decision is to accept the nomination and run for re-election.”
Officials defended the manner in which the decision was announced.
According to a White House official, it was done at the “last minute.”
The decision was actually made in the last 24 hours, and only Biden’s family and a small circle of close aides knew about his decision.
And by keeping it from senior staff until the last minute — and not telling junior staff at all — the news didn’t leak. It came out on Biden’s terms.
It all fits the picture of a man frustrated by what he saw as a public pressure campaign to force him into action.
Biden has been in physical and political isolation for the past four days.
He is at his beach house in Delaware, on the Atlantic Ocean, recovering from COVID, still coughing and hoarse from the virus. First lady Jill Biden has been with him, though she is in a separate room.
Since then, the president has watched one Democrat after another call for his resignation, while he has spent the past three weeks trying to reassure the party that he is mentally and physically ready for a second term.
But despite everything he has done — national television interviews, local radio interviews, a press conference and campaign stops — nothing has turned the tide against him.
Joe Biden endorsed Kamala Harris
Hunter Biden, Melissa Cohen, Joe Biden and Jill Biden in July – his family has supported him
After the decision, Biden’s family was loud and clear in their love and support, in which he praised him for his services to the country.
Jill Biden sent him her love on Sunday afternoon by retweeting his letter with two red hearts.
Naomi Biden, the Bidens’ eldest granddaughter, wrote a lengthy message on X, saying she was “proud” of her “daddy,” as the grandchildren call President Biden.
She noted, “Our world is better today in so many ways because of him. To the Americans who have always relied on him, keep the faith. He will always rely on us.”
And Hunter Biden, in a statement from his father, said: ‘He is unique in public life today in that there is no distance between Joe Biden the man and Joe Biden the public servant of the past 54 years. I am so fortunate that I get to tell him every night that I love him and thank him. I ask all Americans to join me tonight in doing the same.’
“Thank you, Mr. President. I love you, Dad.”