One of the longest-serving American statesmen had his career snuffed out, and his hopes of a second term as president, by a 90-minute debate. Trailing Donald Trump in opinion polls, President Joe Biden challenged him to a debate – and floundered so badly questions were raised about his fitness for office.
Hounded by mounting calls for his resignation since the CNN debate on June 27, Biden refused to quit for three weeks. Finally, in isolation for Covid in his vacation home in Rehoboth, Delaware, in the presence of a few aides who kept their distance, Biden wrote a letter to fellow Americans announcing he was standing down.
His decision to drop out of the presidential race marks “the sunset of a consequential career in public service that spanned more than 50 years”, says the Washington Post.
The Republican nominee Donald Trump’s 39-year-old running mate, JD Vance, was not even born when Biden was elected to the Senate from Delaware in 1972 at the age of 29.
Personal tragedy
Shortly after success came tragedy. His wife, Neilia, and one-year-old daughter, Naomi, were killed in an automobile accident while shopping in Delaware soon after he was elected senator, leaving him with two little sons, Beau, three, and Hunter, two.
Joe Biden met Jill Biden, then a teacher, on a blind date in 1975 and married her in 1977.
Rising steadily through the ranks in the Senate, he went on to chair the judicial and foreign relations committees. But he experienced failures, too, including two failed presidential bids in 1988 and 2008.
Past presidential bids
He was in his forties when he wanted to be president in 1988 but withdrew after being accused of plagiarism.
In 2008, Biden dropped out of the presidential race, unable to compete with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But after Obama won the Democratic nomination, he picked Biden as his running mate.
Biden suffered personal tragedy again when his son, Beau, died of brain cancer in 2015 while he was vice president.
Obama passed him over in 2016, endorsing Hillary Clinton instead to run for president.
Hillary lost the election to Trump.
But Biden beat Trump in 2020, entering the White House as the oldest American president at the age of 78.
Biden’s admirers
“The admiration for Biden among Democrats has persisted throughout his presidency,” says the Financial Times. “Despite his age, and tensions over the war in Gaza, he has earned plaudits from younger progressive members of the party including rising stars such as New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who backed his 2024 candidacy until the very end.”
Former president Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, praised Biden. “We join millions of Americans in thanking President Biden for all he has accomplished, standing up for America time and again, with his North Star always being what’s best for the country,” the Clintons said in their joint statement.
Senator Bernie Sanders supported Biden in a letter to the New York Times when others were urging the president to quit.
“Supporters of Mr. Biden can speak proudly about a good and decent Democratic president with a record of real accomplishment,” Sanders wrote. “The Biden administration … helped rebuild the economy during the pandemic far faster than economists thought possible. At a time when people were terrified about the future, the president and those of us who supported him in Congress put Americans back to work, provided cash benefits to desperate parents and protected small businesses, hospitals, schools and child care centres.”
Biden had his critics. He was accused of bungling the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and many did not like his providing arms aid and support to Israel in the Gaza war. But Biden supported US allies from Nato to Taiwan and aided Ukraine against the Russian invasion. He did what US leaders are expected to do.
Even commentators urging Biden to drop out of the race praised him as a man and for his accomplishments.
Biden’s withdrawal ‘a historical anomaly’
Frank Bruni wrote in the New York Times on Sunday (July 13) when Biden stepped down:
“ However grudging, Biden’s withdrawal is a remarkable reckoning and a historical anomaly. It runs counter to human nature, or at least to the nature of humans who have known the exhilaration of being on top. Rulers cling to their gilded stations. When they’re threatened, they cling tighter. History is lousy with guests who wouldn’t leave, not once they’d experienced the fluffiness of the pillows and the fawning of the help.
How many senators, Mitch McConnell among them, have minimized their physical declines and their inability to work as forcefully as they once did? How many Supreme Court justices? How many presidents, for that matter? At various points, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan — to name just three — faced very real questions about their fitness. They or the people around them made excuses, made do and muddled through.
“Only a minority of American presidents didn’t seek another term for which they were eligible.”
The last was Lyndon B. Johnson more than a half-century ago.”
Obama on Biden
Obama, who reportedly thought that Biden could not defeat Donald Trump in the coming election, praised him for dropping out of the race.
In a statement, he said: “Joe Biden has been one of America’s most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me. Today, we’ve also been reminded — again — that he’s a patriot of the highest order.
“Sixteen years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I knew about Joe’s remarkable career in public service. But what I came to admire even more was his character — his deep empathy and hard-earned resilience; his fundamental decency and belief that everyone counts. Since taking office, President Biden has displayed that character again and again. He helped end the pandemic, created millions of jobs, lowered the cost of prescription drugs, passed the first major piece of gun safety legislation in 30 years, made the biggest investment to address climate change in history, and fought to ensure the rights of working people to organize for fair wages and benefits. Internationally, he restored America’s standing in the world, revitalized NATO, and mobilized the world to stand up against Russian aggression in Ukraine…
“This outstanding track record gave President Biden every right to run for re-election and finish the job he started. Joe understands better than anyone the stakes in this election — how everything he has fought for throughout his life, and everything that the Democratic Party stands for, will be at risk if we allow Donald Trump back in the White House and give Republicans control of Congress.
“I also know Joe has never backed down from a fight. For him to look at the political landscape and decide that he should pass the torch to a new nominee is surely one of the toughest in his life. But I know he wouldn’t make this decision unless he believed it was right for America. It’s a testament to Joe Biden’s love of country — and a historic example of a genuine public servant once again putting the interests of the American people ahead of his own that future generations of leaders will do well to follow.”