The President's Daily Brief - Joe Biden Quits the Race: A PDB Special Bulletin

Episode Date: July 21, 2024

In this special edition of The President's Daily Brief: Mike Baker looks at President Joe Biden’s announcement that he will not be seeking reelection. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to a special edition of the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. Well, it's been quite a week for U.S. politics. And, as you may have heard by now, news broke earlier today that President Biden will step down as the Democrat nominee for president, formally ending weeks, well, okay, frankly months of endless speculation regarding his fate as a candidate. In remarks posted to the social media platform X, which is, of course, why wouldn't you resign as president on X? President Biden said, quote, it's been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president.

And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term. Biden added that he'll speak to the nation later this week in more detail about his. decision. Now, in a follow-up post, Biden also gave an endorsement to Vice President Kamala Harris. He wrote, quote, today, I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats, it's time to come together and beat Trump, end quote. Now, pressure has been mounting on President Biden from within the Democrat Party ever since his disastrous debate performance in June. And it reached a crescendo in the days following. following the failed assassination attempt on former President Trump.

It became clear following that debate performance that Biden's family, close circle of advisors, including Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, key campaign staff, the White House staff, and, of course, a compliant media, had been covering for Biden's declining mental acuity for some time. Not to put too fine a point on it, but they had engaged in a coordinated lie to the American people in an effort to maintain power. Maybe that makes me sound surly.

Once it became clear that the public was onto the gravity of the situation, prominent figures such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries and others, all looks to cover their own backsides. Oh, no, I'm sorry, all made overtures to President Biden in the past week to reconsider his run for a second term. Other allies directly called on him to drop out, fearing that President Biden would harm the Democrat Party's electoral chances in November, particularly in key. swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. By Friday, rumors were swirling that President Biden was caving to the pressure, despite official statements from his team that he planned to press forward with his campaign. This time, well, the speculation was correct. The DNC is now in relatively uncharted territory as they navigate towards November.

The last time an incumbent president dropped out of the race was Lyndon Johnson in March of 1968, though Johnson gave the party much more time to sort out their strategy than Biden. Johnson left largely due to his unpopularity over the war in Vietnam, which had brought his approval rating down to 38%. Still, his decision threw the Democrat Party into chaos, leading to a 1968 DNC convention marked by violent protests. The party eventually selected then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey to replace Johnson, who went on to lose to Richard Nixon.

Now, before Johnson, we'd have to wind the clock back to the election of 1848, I think back when Biden was just a toddler, when James Polk, in keeping with a campaign promise, elected not to run for second term. There are no details yet about how the party plans on choosing a successor. The delegates heading to the DNC in August in Chicago are under no obligation to side with Harris, regardless of Biden's endorsement. Now, obviously, we'll have more on this story in tomorrow's edition. of the President's Daily Brief. And if you haven't already this weekend, please check out our latest edition of the PDB Situation Report, available on our YouTube channel at President's Daily Brief

and all podcast platforms. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Not loving your AT&T or T Mobile Bill? Yeah, we've been hearing that a lot. Good news.

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