Sunday, July 21, 2024, 8:20 p.m.
In the end, Joe Biden has given in to the clamor within his own party and has announced that he is withdrawing from the presidential race. His hesitations, blunders and confusion in this pre-campaign gave his rival, Donald Trump, an advantage and worried the Democrats. The final straw was the Covid diagnosis he received at the end of the week. These days of mandatory, although not total, rest have served the current president of the United States to realize that he had no other option than to turn the page and leave the leadership of the party in the hands of someone else.
The question is who will be in charge of replacing him and face Trump in the November elections. There are several possibilities, although the most logical one would be his vice president, Kamala Harris. However, not everyone within the party believes that he should be appointed by hand, but rather after holding a mini-primary.
The final say is in the hands of the party delegates: 3,900 people with very varied profiles and most of them completely unknown to the public. The party set the first week of August as the deadline for choosing its candidate, since the Democratic National Convention is being held between the 19th and 22nd of that month in Chicago, where it is necessary to arrive with its homework done.
A disastrous debate
It was Joe Biden’s disastrous performance during his June 27 debate with Donald Trump that precipitated the events, Reuters reports. That day, from the first seconds of the verbal battle he himself had called for, tens of millions of television viewers saw a hesitant, confused Biden, an image that left Democrats dismayed and disoriented.
He had a cold and coughed frequently. His voice was dull, he stumbled when he spoke and left sentences unfinished. A painful spectacle that brought to light the doubts about his age that those closest to him had tried hard to quell.
As soon as he finished, the question was inevitable: who would be the first to ask him to pass the baton? The nervousness spread. Some Democratic congressmen publicly asked him to do so. As the days went by, heavyweights of the party joined in. One after another, frightened by the polls that showed him as a loser and fearing an overwhelming victory for Republican Donald Trump, they turned their backs on him. At first in private, suggesting that he reconsider his candidacy.
American media, citing anonymous sources, said former President Barack Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders in Congress Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries had expressed concern. And images of Joe Biden testing positive for Covid and struggling to get off the jetway of his plane only amplified his camp’s nervousness. Meanwhile, Donald Trump appears to be enjoying a state of grace, with legal victories and consecration at the Republican Party convention.
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