Joe Biden Refuses to Resign

U.S. President Joe Biden has announced that he will continue to serve as the head of state, refusing to withdraw from his bid for re-election. He made the announcement on his page on the X social media platform.

“We are the United States of America, there is nothing we cannot do if we do it together. We just have to remember who we are. I have dedicated my presidency to proving that, and I will continue to do that today, tomorrow, and every day until I am honored to serve as your president,” Biden's statement read.

After Biden exited the presidential race, House Speaker and Republican Mike Johnson called on the president to resign. “If Joe Biden is unfit to run in the presidential elections, he is unfit to be president. He should resign immediately,” Johnson wrote on his X page.

Biden's decision to withdraw from the race became known last Sunday. He stated that he plans to address the public later this week to “explain his decision.” Biden has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. The decision on a new candidate will have to be made by the Democratic Party convention, which will take place in a few weeks.

The 81-year-old Biden, the oldest serving president in American history, is under intense pressure after a disastrous debate with Donald Trump, followed by public gaffes in speeches. On July 12, at a NATO summit, Biden mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as Vladimir Putin, and five days later, during an interview with BET, he failed to recall the name of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, calling him “the Black guy.”

Despite Biden's approval rating not having suffered a catastrophic plunge (according to a NYT/Siena poll, he had 43% in early July compared to Trump's 49%), more than 20 Congress members, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have publicly urged him to withdraw his candidacy, while Democratic Party donors have begun to retract their contributions.

According to The New York Times, $90 million allocated for the Democratic Party's presidential campaign has been frozen by donors until Biden exits the race and the party finds a replacement for him. The Future Forward committee, which raises funds for Biden's campaign, has only been able to secure $430 million instead of the planned $700 million by mid-July.

Biden's exit from the presidential race, just four months before the elections, is the first of its kind since 1968, when Democratic President Lyndon Johnson withdrew due to a failed campaign. His running mate Hubert Humphrey lost to Richard Nixon.