One dead after attack on ferry in Russian port, regional official says

WASHINGTON – Just over 100 days before the US presidential election, US President Joe Biden has withdrawn his candidacy for re-election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s candidate, citing concerns about his suitability to run due to his age.

Biden has been under pressure for weeks since his terrible performance in a debate with his rival, Republican candidate Donald Trump.

The 81-year-old appeared frail and confused at times during the debate on June 27, raising questions about his physical and mental state.

The president gave no reason for withdrawing his candidacy, but immediately endorsed Harris as the party’s candidate, which she praised to “earn and win” as the Democratic National Convention approaches on August 19-21.

“I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” said Biden, who is recovering from COVID-19 at home in Delaware. saidand added that he had acted in the “best interests of my party and the country.”

Many Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, immediately endorsed Harris as the Democratic Party’s nominee, although it remained unclear whether she would even be challenged for the top spot on the ballot.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said the party would soon comment on how to proceed with the nomination process after Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to forgo his party’s nomination in more than five decades.

“The bottom line is that it’s going to be very difficult to dislodge her (Harris) from the top spot for all sorts of reasons,” Matthew Dallek, a historian and professor of political science at George Washington University, told RFE/RL.

“She has Biden’s support. She has access to the campaign infrastructure and campaign funds. She has been vice president for four years. She doesn’t have much time left. I think it would be very difficult for the Democratic Party to replace the first African-American vice president at the top of the ticket with a white man.”

Democrats say the situation is even more urgent because there is too much at stake – including democracy itself – for them to lose the election.

Over the course of his nearly decade-long political career, Trump has praised authoritarian leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

During his time in office from 2017 to 2021, Trump undermined NATO unity, shifted the Supreme Court to the right of the political spectrum, and attempted to overturn the 2020 election results.

Biden defeated Trump in 2020, narrowly beating him in the key swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

But polls showed Trump, 78, extending his lead over Biden in some of those key states as well, particularly after the Republican candidate survived an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.

“Biden was essentially waging two wars at once, one against Donald Trump and the Republican Party and one against his own party, the Democrats. I think that was just too much to sustain a campaign in the run-up to a general election,” Thomas Gift, associate professor of political science at University College London, told RFE/RL.

Republican leaders immediately attacked Harris over the Biden administration’s policies, with some saying that if Biden was not fit enough to run for president, he should resign from office, a move analysts said was unlikely.

“There’s a lot of evidence, in my opinion, that Biden is really weakened as a campaigner. But as far as his ability to govern and make decisions and make informed decisions, I don’t think we’ve seen that,” Dallek said.

If Harris, a 59-year-old former prosecutor and senator from California, is selected as the Democratic nominee, she would be the first black woman in the country’s history to run as the front-runner of a major party.

Harris led the administration on several key issues, including immigration, voting rights and reproductive rights. During her three-year tenure, she also raised her international profile, making more than a dozen trips abroad and meeting with about 150 politicians.

Harris also represented the United States at the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland last month.

Other names frequently mentioned as possible contenders for the Democratic nomination included Governors Gavin Newsom of California, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and JB Pritzker of Illinois.

Harris has a similar disapproval rating to Biden, but experts say she is still unknown to many Americans and can improve her image as she campaigns across the country.

Biden’s support for Harris gives her a clear chance of winning the nomination and should avoid an intra-party dispute, Gift says.

“The last few weeks have been bad enough for the Democrats. The last thing they needed was a really exhausting convention. That’s why I think it made sense for Biden to endorse Harris,” he said.

If Democrats do not elect Harris, analysts say they also risk alienating black voters, who represent an important part of their voting base.

“He accomplished one of the most difficult tasks for any political leader, and that was in the national interest,” said presidential historian Michael Beschloss. said in a post on X.

Biden’s announcement means that his political career spanning more than half a century will finally end in January 2025 with the inauguration of his successor.

In 1972, at the age of 29, Biden won the Delaware Senate election. He held that seat for the next 36 years and served as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He ran for the Democratic nomination in 1988 and 2008, but lost both times.

Considered a novice in foreign policy issues, Obama appointed Biden as his vice president in 2008. Biden served as vice president for the next eight years, overseeing the White House’s Ukraine policy and making several trips to Kyiv.

Like most vice presidents, Biden wanted to run for the highest office in the land in 2016, but was encouraged to make way for former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, something he is reportedly still bitter about. She was defeated by Trump in one of the biggest upsets in presidential history.

In his third attempt to win the presidency, Biden defeated incumbent Trump in a close race in 2020, becoming the oldest president to hold the office. He immediately sought to repair relations with European allies damaged under his predecessor.

Since Biden dropped out before officially becoming his party’s nominee, 78-year-old Trump is now officially the oldest presidential candidate in U.S. history.

One of his lasting legacies as president may be his ability to quickly unite these allies and provide tens of billions of dollars in military and financial aid to Ukraine when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.