WASHINGTON — President Biden’s last-minute decision to abandon his re-election campaign — mere days before Democrats were due to formalize his nomination — followed an intense, shadowy effort to nudge him out.
Biden, 81, defiantly clung to his stance as the Democratic nominee — pointing to his clean sweep of primaries and caucuses this year — before tweeting Sunday that he would abandon course while recuperating from COVID at his Delaware vacation home.
Some of the party’s most respected leaders — including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — directly leaned on Biden to throw in the towel.
Others such as former President Barack Obama worked behind the scenes, telling allies that Biden should go, according to reports that Obama did not deny.
Schumer apparently tried the tactic of cajoling Biden to go while also praising him in private — giving him a hug after urging him to consider retiring, sources said. But Pelosi all but threatened to rake Biden over the coals after a contentious phone call about polling, following the president’s dismal June 27 debate performance against former President Donald Trump.
Eight days before Biden exited the race, former Senate colleague Schumer paid him a rare visit in Rehoboth Beach, Del., for a 35-minute meeting, sources said.
Schumer “opened by saying he was there out of love and affection and he came as a friend and colleague,” a source told The Post. “Schumer delivered a personal appeal that focused on three points: the Biden legacy, the future of the country and the impact on Congress. He urged him to think about the Supreme Court.”
The Senate leader told Biden, “I do not expect you to walk out of this room making a decision, but I hope you will think about what I said.”
Biden told him, “I need another week,” the source said.
The latest on President Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race:
- Biden drops out of presidential race after Democratic revolt following disastrous debate: ‘Best interest of the country’
- Biden drops out of presidential race: live updates
- NY Dems are already lining up behind Kamala Harris to replace Biden — with these big exceptions
- Biden delayed dropping out partly because he doubted Harris’ chances against Trump: report
- Miranda Devine: Joe Biden is too frail to run in 2024 but he’s still our president?
Shortly after the meeting, Trump was grazed by a bullet at a rally in Butler, Pa., briefly halting the momentum against Biden and giving the president breathing room to make a last stab at stabilizing his faltering campaign.
Biden told BET on Tuesday in Las Vegas that he was in “better physical shape” than Trump, 78, but that he might drop out “if I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, ‘You got this problem and that problem’ ” — as medical pundits postulated that Biden might have some degenerative condition such as Parkinson’s.
The interview only served to renew the push against him, with a torrent of congressional Democrats soon publicly calling on him to end his campaign.
The new groundswell started Wednesday with Rep. Adam Schiff, the former House Intelligence Committee chairman and current California Senate nominee who is close to Pelosi.
When Pelosi had pointed to the president’s troubling polling in her call with Biden, her concerns were met with defensiveness, according to a report by CNN.
“Nancy made clear that they could do this the easy way or the hard way,” a source told Politico on Sunday. “It was about to be the hard way.”
What to know about President Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race:
- President Biden announced Sunday he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race — after weeks of prominent Democrats and donors calling on him to withdraw following his disastrous performance in the first presidential debate.
- In a letter posted on X Sunday afternoon, Biden admitted that it is in the “best interest of my party and country” for him to step down as the Democratic nominee.
- Biden wrote that he intends to serve out the remainder of his term and will address the country on his decision later this week.
- In a follow-up X post, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the suddenly open Democratic nomination. “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” the president wrote.
- Former President Donald Trump reacted to the news by labeling Biden the “worst president in the history of our country” in a call with CNN.
In the end, sources close to Biden said they believe he chose to step aside simply because of the likelihood of a landslide defeat, which could have wiped out down-ballot Democrats.
“I think he saw the writing on the wall with internal polling and lack of fundraising,” a source close to Biden told The Post. “[I’m] not sure threats by Pelosi were necessary.”
Biden campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg, the co-founder of film studio DreamWorks, reportedly warned the president Wednesday that donor funds were drying up.
“It was withdrawal by a thousand cuts,” a Democratic source told The Post. “The polls cut. The random House members cut. Leadership — Chuck, Nancy, Hakeem [Jeffries of New York] cut. And then the staff,” the source said.
Biden’s final decision was known only to his inner circle of aides until right before his tweet Sunday afternoon — with most White House and campaign staffers briefed moments beforehand or learning about the political earthquake through social media.
Biden then quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, to lead the Democratic ticket, and many party leaders rallied behind her — though Obama has not explicitly backed Harris, whose favorability ratings trail Biden’s own low marks.
Harris faces an initial test of her support when Democratic delegates virtually vote on the party’s presidential nomination in early August, to meet an Aug. 7 Ohio ballot access deadline. Delegates at the Aug. 19-22 Democratic convention in Chicago can reopen balloting if opposition to Harris mounts.
Some sources close to Biden previously told The Post that they believed the president would only drop out if he thought Harris could defeat Trump. Her critics worry that she may be unable to do so, especially because of her controversial assignment by Biden to reduce illegal immigration, which instead surged to new record highs.
“We are so f–ked,” a senior congressional Democratic source told The Post on Friday about Harris possibly leading the ticket. “Apparently the border czar who lets 10 million illegals in is going to win this election for us. Absolutely ridiculous. She should join Biden as he exits stage left.”
Several sources said Biden’s team largely understood the need for secrecy to guard against leaks before he dropped out — though they also speculated on why the president, who reportedly told a handful of close confidants Saturday night, chose not to address the matter in a tape Sunday. Some theorized that his voice may be hoarse as he recovers from COVID-19.
One source close to the White House told The Post that there’s “a lot of relief that it’s over.
“There’s a lot of frustration at the senior staff who put him in this situation [and] enabled him to not have a dignified exit [from the campaign] nine months ago,” the source said.