The President of the United States, Joe Biden, announced on Sunday (21) that he has given up his candidacy for re-election, declaring his support for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic Party’s nominee to run in the 2024 elections.
But, just over 100 days before the vote, which is scheduled for November 5, the measure has given rise to many more questions about what will happen next in the rest of his presidency and the presidential race.
See below the main questions and answers about Joe Biden’s withdrawal.
Is Joe Biden still the US president?
Yes.
Biden’s announcement concerns exclusively his role as the Democratic candidate for November’s presidential election. It has no relation to his current role or term as president, which he has said he intends to fulfill in full.
Biden will remain president of the United States until his successor takes office, scheduled for January 20, 2025.
In announcing his decision, the Democratic leader wrote: “While it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interests of my party and the country for me to step aside and focus exclusively on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term. mandate”.
Despite this statement, some in the Republican Party are calling for him to resign immediately.
Key congressmen questioning Biden’s ability to serve as president and calling for his resignation include U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, and the chairman of the Senate Republican campaign arm, the Montana Senator Steve Daines.
But again, there was no indication as of Sunday night that Biden has any intention of resigning from office.
Biden supported Harris. Does that make her the Democratic nominee?
No.
After the announcement, Joe Biden supported Kamala Harris, his vice president, to be the Democratic nominee for President.
Harris said in a statement that she is “honored” to receive Biden’s support and intends to win the nomination as the Democratic nominee.
Several prominent Democrats quickly endorsed Harris, including:
- Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who ran for President in 2020
- the House’s top progressive representative, Pramila Jayapal of Washington
- and Delaware Senator Chris Coons, a Biden campaign co-chair
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro also expressed support for Harris, as did the entire Tennessee delegation to the Democratic National Committee.
But none of this automatically makes her the nominee.
How will the Democratic nominee be chosen and who will it be?
Zachary Wolf and Ethan Cohen of CNN, explained how the complex process to replace Biden will probably take place.
Individual delegates — a fixture of the U.S. electoral system — will now select the party’s nominee during the Democratic Convention in Chicago next month — or, potentially, during a virtual call.
But because Biden won almost all the delegates during the primary votes, they were endorsed by the Biden campaign and promised to vote for the president.
This means that while delegates can vote however they want, it will largely be Joe Biden’s supporters who will choose the nominee.
However, a candidate who is not supported by the president may try to secure the candidacy. Some Democrats are calling for an “open process” to replace Biden, which would see candidates other than Harris join the race.
According to party rules, candidates must meet certain requirements to be nominated, including:
- gather hundreds of signatures from delegates from several states
- be a “genuine democrat”
- and have “established substantial support for his nomination as the Democratic candidate”
While that determination must be made by the national chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the party has not yet released further details about exactly how the process would work.
Who else could be the new Democratic Party candidate?
Even though Kamala Harris received Joe Biden’s support, the names of many prominent Democratic congresswomen were unofficially floated as alternatives that could go against her for the party’s nomination.
The majority of these individuals, however, have not announced or signaled that they intend to run.
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Kamala Harris was the first woman to hold the vice presidency of the United States Credit: Kevin Mohatt/Reuters
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US Vice President Kamala Harris Credit: 08/10/2021REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
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Kamala Harris, US Vice President Credit: Getty Images
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Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris Credit: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
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Joe Biden alongside his vice-president Kamala Harris Credit: Reproduction/Twitter @joebiden (11.Aug.2020)
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US Vice President Kamala Harris Credit: Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters (12.Aug.2020)
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Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in Delaware Credit: Photo: Carlos Barria – August 13, 2020 / Reuters
On Sunday night, however, sources close to Senator Joe Manchin, an independent candidate from West Virginia, told Jake Tapper of CNN, that he is considering re-registering as a Democrat and taking his chances.
Manchin called on Biden to drop out of the race on Sunday morning at the State of the Union. CNN.
How will the new Democratic candidate’s running mate be chosen?
The Democratic Party elects a vice presidential candidate in much the same way as it votes for president, although there is typically no full vote.
In practice, whoever the presidential nominee chooses as his running mate is usually accepted by the delegates.
What happens to the money raised for Biden’s re-election?
Joe Biden’s re-election efforts raised a total of US$240 million (R$1.3 billion) at the end of June.
These funds are divided between the Democratic National Committee, allied committees and Biden’s own campaign committee. The latter alone had US$95.9 million (R$526 million) at the end of last month, according to data from the US Federal Election Commission.
Many campaign finance experts say that if Kamala Harris becomes the candidate, any money remaining in the campaign’s bank accounts would be transferred to her political operation because she is already on the ticket.
But some Republican lawyers disagree, arguing that under some interpretations, Biden and Harris must be formally nominated by their party as candidates before any money can be transferred.
“If President Biden is committed to passing the torch to his vice president and can seed his campaign with the Biden for President campaign’s current war chest, he will first have to become his party’s legal nominee,” the veteran wrote. Republican election lawyer Charlie Spies in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.
If Harris does not become the nominee, the Biden-Harris campaign could transfer all of the money to the Democratic National Committee, according to the Federal Election Commission.
The committee would then have the power to financially support another prominent Democratic nominee and distribute the money to candidates further down the ticket, along with their allied committees.
The National Committee would encounter limitations from the federal agency in spending and contributions, if it chooses this path.
Another option the campaign has is to transform itself into a political action committee, spending Biden’s funds on independent expenses, such as advertising campaigns for a new presidential candidate.
But it would not be allowed to coordinate these spending activities with any of the candidates it supports.
Has this ever happened before?
Although no United States president has been pressured to drop out of a re-election campaign due to concerns about his mental fitness, it is not unprecedented for a sitting president to abandon his re-election campaign.
Still, this is rare.
This is the first time a US president has dropped out of a re-election bid in decades. This goes back to the decisions of former presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry S. Truman, in 1968 and 1952, respectively.
Biden’s decision notably comes months closer to Election Day than in other cases.
At least five other former presidents have also rejected the possibility of a second full term.
*David Wright, Zachary B. Wolf, Ethan Cohen, Fredreka Schouten and Alex Leeds Matthews of CNN, contributed to this report
Biden is the first US president to give up re-election in more than 5 decades
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