Things That Don't Make Sense About Joe Biden's Dropout Announcement

Even before Donald Trump and Joe Biden had their presidential debate on June 27, 2024, folks were raising concerns regarding Biden's age. At 81 years old Biden is only a few years older than Trump but came across as much more frail, to the point where even his supporters couldn't ignore or refute worries regarding his capacity to fulfill his presidential duties if he won the upcoming election. In the weeks since, a litany of Democrats spoke up in favor of Biden dropping out of the race, including former president Barack Obama and California Representative Nancy Pelosi. But now that President Biden has officially dropped out of the race, many questions remain – as well as some oddities. 

For instance, Biden released his official, signed statement regarding his decision on X (formerly Twitter), saying that while it was his, "intention to seek reelection," he believed, "it is in the best interest of my party and the country" for him to not do so. And while the letter doesn't say that he dropped out due to pressure from his party due to his performance during the presidential debate, it's reasonable to assume that this is precisely why. As for why he held out so long and didn't drop out earlier, it could simply be because he required a bit of convincing. Additionally, in his letter, he thanks Vice President Kamala Harris for "being an extraordinary partner." He did not, however, immediately name her as his preferred successor, but did so later on X.

It took a bit over three weeks following his debate with Donald Trump for President Biden to concede that he ought to drop out of the presidential race — from June 27 to July 21. Doubtlessly a lot of discussions happened under the hood along the way, including talks between Biden and his advisors and family, perhaps phone calls between Biden and some of the individuals who came out asking him to step down, and so forth. While three-plus weeks isn't exactly a lot of time to make such a weighty, life-altering decision, some outlets were asking the very next day after the debate why Biden hadn't stepped down already.

Though there are no official statements explaining why Biden didn't step down earlier, it stands to reason that the closeness to the November 5 general presidential election has something to do with the delay as well as the need to hurry. Biden was going to be announced as the official Democratic Party presidential candidate at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) from August 19 to 22. This means that on one hand, Biden had a limited time to make his decision to drop out, especially considering the need to endorse and prop up another candidate. It also means that because the DNC is fast approaching it was already late in the process for the Democratic Party to swap candidates. In the end, for better or for worse, Biden waited a bit.

It's not exactly sketchy or weird for President Biden to not announce who he would endorse as the Democratic Party right off the bat. After all, it's easy to see how his announcement letter on X had one purpose, his endorsement of a successor had another purpose, and so the two announcements were made separately. And, Biden's official endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris only took place about one hour later, also on X. He wrote, "Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year." At the time of writing Biden's background banner on X reads simply, "Harris for President," with a campaign donation URL underneath. 

And yet, in our modern news cycle, things happen fast. Shortly after the announcement, The Washington Post even published a list of potential picks other than Harris for the DNC's presidential nomination in the event he dropped out, which is still viable since the official Democratic presidential candidate won't be chosen until the Democratic National Convention in August. It's possible that if Biden endorsed Harris at the same time as when he made his drop out announcement, he might have saved some confusion on the part of the public.