White House and campaign aides to President Joe Biden reportedly found out he was ending his re-election bid on the social media platform X.
A Democrat familiar with the situation told POLITICO, “We’re all finding out by tweet.” This person added, “None of us understand what’s happening.”
Biden, 81, had publicly insisted that he would not be dropping out even as Democrats increasingly pressed him to step aside after his fumbling debate performance late last month spurred unease about his apparent decline and electability.
Then, on Sunday, Biden announced that he would be stopping his 2024 campaign to focus on the remainder of his term and later said he was endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. Harris later said she intended to win the nomination.
POLITICO noted a “sign of the abruptness” was that Biden’s campaign sent out a fundraising email for “Joe and Kamala” just eight minutes after Biden shared his decision to bow out.
New York Times reporter Kenneth Vogel shared on X some information to “give a sense how much Biden’s decision took his campaign by surprise” on Sunday.
“Campaign staff were still calling delegates 30 minutes before his announcement, pushing them to declare their support for Biden in the rollcall & on social media, according to one delegate,” he wrote in a post.
Nick Koenig, the delegate who received the call 30 mins before the announcement, says a Biden staffer pushed them to commit to support Biden in the roll call vote & in posts on social media.
They refused to commit.
“It’s absolutely bonkers,” they said. https://t.co/soHxPjYey8 pic.twitter.com/8B73qu3M64
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) July 21, 2024
“Nick Koenig, the delegate who received the call 30 mins before the announcement, says a Biden staffer pushed them to commit to support Biden in the roll call vote & in posts on social media,” Vogel added. “They refused to commit. ‘It’s absolutely bonkers,’ they said.”
Biden posted a letter to Americans to his personal account on X announcing that he was ending his 2024 re-election campaign. The post has been viewed more than 185 million times in the few hours since it was published.
The New York Times reported Biden worked on the letter with his adviser Steve Ricchetti and chief strategist Mike Donilon from Saturday afternoon into the night. And, the newspaper’s story said, Biden did not tell most of his staff of his decision until a minute before the letter was posted to X.
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X — formerly Twitter — is owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who endorsed Donald Trump in the White House race after the former president survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania last weekend.
The Wall Street Journal later reported Musk had committed to giving a new super PAC supporting Trump $45 million a month.
