The NPR Politics Podcast - President Biden Ends His Reelection Campaign. Now What?

Episode Date: July 21, 2024

Biden strenuously resisted pressure to step down from the campaign for weeks after a debate in which he struggled to speak clearly and coherently. But, ultimately, the pressure from his fellow Democratic and donors became too much to ignore. We discuss what comes next.This episode: national political correspondent Sarah McCammon, senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.The podcast is produced by Jeongyoon Han, Casey Morell and Kelli Wessinger. Our intern is Bria Suggs. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi. Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at AutographCollection.com. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Sarah McCammon. I cover the presidential campaign. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.

And it is 3.39 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, July 21st, and we're in your feed with breaking news. Today on the show, President Biden is out of the presidential race. He announced the decision in a letter earlier this afternoon posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. Let's start there. Domenico, Tam, what did the president say about his decision? He addressed this letter to the American people, and he said that it has been the greatest honor of his life to serve as their president. He went through a series of accomplishments. And then he said, quote, and while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus on fulfilling his duties as president of the United States. Later in another social media post, he threw his full

endorsement behind Vice President Harris. He's been under just immense pressure to make this statement, to take this step. Remind us how we got here. Well, there were several Democrats who came out, three dozen or so Democrats, especially swing state Democrats who had come out saying that they've seen polling within their state, saying that Biden can't win. We have seen, you know, over the last couple of weeks, something of a collapse in the swing state polling. National polls have had the race still within a margin of error. But those big seven swing states, we've seen Biden really on the decline by a few points. And even states that weren't on the map previously,

suddenly coming onto the map, like Virginia, Minnesota, New Hampshire, for example, New Mexico. And you had a lot of people who are running for reelection in those places who are very concerned. I think a key player here was Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker, who pays very close attention to the polls, very close attention to her members and whether or not Democrats can win the House. Well, and what has been interesting over the last several days is that you've had high profile Democrats coming out like Pelosi did and saying, President Biden has a really big decision to make. Now, the reality is, President Biden had said repeatedly that he had already decided he was staying in. But all of these

Democrats coming out and saying, well, you know, he has to decide was a not so subtle way of saying, we don't like this decision that you've made. And we are worried about down ballot consequences. And that essentially, Donald Trump, who every Democrat agrees is an existential threat, could win and that the Democratic Party could be wiped out up and down the ballot. And all this, of course, started with the disastrous debate that Biden had. And you know, people have been saying for a long time, including many Democrats, that they thought that Biden was too old to run, that they thought that he didn't have the mental fitness or acuity to be president. But he had had these public events, you know, the State of the

Union, where he seemed fiery and forceful. And then to have such a debacle in that debate, it really set Democrats' hair on fire. Politically, probably pretty smart to do it just after the Republican National Convention to try to blunt any kind of bounce that Donald Trump might get out of that. Well, that gets to kind of my big question. Why now? I mean, there has been so much pressure since that debate, Domenico, for him to do this. There's been this steady drip, drip, drip of leading Democrats saying he should. Why now? I think it took a while for Biden to accept it, the stages of grief. I mean, first denial, right? I mean, Biden has been told for a long time that he can't do things. He's had obstacles to overcome in his life. He felt like he could still overcome it. But this was one that a lot of people just felt there was no way to overcome, not just because of what the performance was like, but because it wasn't likely to get much better. He's 81 years old. And Father Time, as we say, is undefeated. And

that was really something that started to make Democrats very, very concerned about what kind of a potential blowout the election could be, whether it was going to be or not. And we should be really clear. I mean, we don't know who's going to replace Biden as the nominee yet, but he has thrown his support behind his vice president. And what are we hearing from Vice President Harris on this? Right. The vice president actually put out a statement while we were taping, and it says in part that she is honored to have the president's endorsement, and it is her intention to earn and win this nomination.

She goes on to say, I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party and unite our nation to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda. So we already have a hint at the messaging there. Okay, well, we're going to take a quick break, and we'll be back in just a moment. And we're back. So what are we hearing from Republicans, especially Republican nominee Donald Trump on all of this? Well, he has weighed in very quickly. He put out a lengthy message on Truth Social. But the key part here is, quote, crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for president

and he is certainly not fit to serve and never was, exclamation point. I will note that at his rally last night in Michigan, Trump spent sort of an extended period of time talking about, well, we don't know if it's going to be Joe. Maybe it'll be Kamala. I'm not sure. He even did this sort of jokey poll of his audience saying, who do you think would be best for me to take on? And they overwhelmingly cheered for him to take on Joe Biden.

Trump and his campaign have built up around taking on Joe Biden. They had a plan. They've been executing it. And now they have to adjust. Now, of course, they've also been running against Harris as, you know, like the real president or the person pulling the strings. And we've seen ads where they highlight her laughter in a way that many people have described as sexist. But certainly, their playbook has to be rewritten. And that is going to be a challenge. We should say Republicans have coalesced around this idea that President Biden should resign the presidency. In fact, here's Speaker Mike Johnson, what he had to say. He said, if Joe Biden is not fit to run for president, he is not fit to serve

as president. He must resign the office immediately. November 5th cannot arrive soon enough. We also saw that from the newly minted vice presidential candidate for Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, who said the same thing. And I have to say, though, it's not 100% clear that this is an attack line that's going to stick. And it just more reflects, perhaps, that Republicans haven't quite coalesced yet on a message to attack Kamala Harris, if she is the person who's going to be the nominee. Vice President Harris, of course, has a big edge here. She's already the vice president. She has the support of the president. There's all the infrastructure that is in place with the Biden

Harris campaign, but she's not guaranteed to be the Democratic nominee. Tam, what happens next? What's the process here? In order for someone else to become the nominee, they would need to actually say that they want the job. And so far, we haven't seen that. That could change by the time we finish taping this podcast. But there has to be a candidate to challenge her at the convention. And that candidate would need to get the signatures of 300 convention delegates. Here's the wild thing. There was a primary. Millions of Americans voted. And they didn't really have a lot of options, but they chose the Biden-Harris ticket. Biden and Harris had

cleared the field of serious Democratic contenders. Now, those delegates that were bound by the primaries are released. They are free. But at the moment, though, Harris is the only person who is up for being the nominee. Someone else would have to run against her. If that person does, then there could very well be what's known as an open convention where there is a vote, a series of votes, rounds and rounds and rounds of votes potentially at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago starting on August 19th. It's also possible, though, that Democrats fall in line behind her. Every one of these congressional Democrats, former presidents and others who have come out and endorsed her, they also get a vote at the convention.

They are also delegates at the convention. And so all those endorsements actually do matter in terms of the electorate, which is now basically 4,000 people who are leaders of the Democratic Party and top volunteers. And if there was an open convention, yeah, there's a lot of people, a lot of Democratic strategists I talk to who think that that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, you know, that that would seem like a more transparent process. And Harris, given that she's probably the likely person to win that anyway, would seem stronger rather than somebody who's being protected as the Biden campaign. And White House has protected Joe Biden for several years, trying to place him in positions where he could do best. You know, having a candidate who's more youthful, more vigorous and a better political player, perhaps in this moment, wouldn't be so bad for the party. A lot of people think. Also, when you look at Harris and thinking about who she might pick for a vice presidential running mate, there's the possibility she picks somebody who would give her a geographic advantage, which we haven't seen in a bit on a presidential ticket. But if she were to pick somebody like Josh Shapiro, who's the governor of Pennsylvania, which is a key state in this race because the Trump campaign is certainly spending a lot of money there, he could give her a geographic advantage.

Someone like Senator Mark Kelly in Arizona, another swing state. So there are some potential, you know, opportunities here for Democrats to gain some attention, pull some attention away from Trump and to be able to reshape the map a little bit. Yeah. I mean, the crazy thing about the last three weeks is that not a lot of attention has been on Trump until obviously the assassination attempt and then the convention. And this now robs him of that tale, because the biggest political story in America right now is what's going to happen with the Democratic ticket. All right, obviously, lots more turns of this to come. We'll be covering it online and on the

radio and in your podcast feeds tomorrow, as always. So make sure to subscribe to the show if you haven't already to get our latest episodes as soon as they're available. News breaks fast, and we are here for you. I'm Sarah McCammon. I cover the campaign. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And thank you, as always, for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.