An electoral campaign that was promised without obstacles ends up derailed in less than a month after its debacle in the debate with the Republican candidate.
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, announced this Sunday that he is withdrawing from the electoral race and has proposed his vice president, Kamala Harris, as his nominee to lead the Democratic Party in the November elections to the White House in a scenario unthinkable just four weeks ago.
The agonizing performance of a doubtful, imprecise and weakened Biden during the June 27 debate in Atlanta against his great rival, former President Donald Trump, caused from that moment on a barrage of doubts within the party about the capacity of the current president. to defeat the New York tycoon, who in one month has placed himself three points ahead in the average of national polls, as reflected this Sunday by the specialized portal RealClearPolitics.
“Although my intention was to seek re-election, I believe that the best thing for my party, for the country and for me is to resign and concentrate solely on fulfilling my duties as president during the remainder of my term,” Biden said at the beginning of a series of statements published on social networks and which he highlights with the promise of explaining his exact motives to the nation in an upcoming speech.
However, Biden, at 81 years old, has wanted to vindicate what, the president believed, was his great shield against criticism: the practical achievements that he has achieved since coming to power after winning the 2020 elections: economic strengthening, reduction of drug prices or the approval of the first law on gun control in 30 years.
“None of this would have been possible without you, the American people. We have overcome a once-in-a-century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Serving as your president has been the greatest honor of my life.” , has manifested.
ATLANTA, TURNING POINT
Since the Atlanta debate, four senators and more than twenty congressmen from their own party have asked Biden to reconsider his decision to remain in the race and bet instead on “passing the torch” to a new candidate.
The president has ended up capitulating despite efforts such as the one made during the last NATO summit in Washington, where he spent an hour answering questions from the media on complex foreign policy issues.
Another issue to take into account has been the refusal among prominent patrons of the party to continue contributing funds to Biden’s campaign, which last month ended up emptying 93 percent of the money raised after allocating almost 50 million euros to a flood of advertisements to change the mood of public opinion after the debate, according to figures collected by Bloomberg.
Sources close to the Biden campaign already hinted at the beginning of this week the beginning of a period of reflection that coincided with the positive for coronavirus that the US president confirmed last Wednesday, in a week in which Trump has ended up monopolizing everything the media space after surviving an assassination attempt last weekend during a rally in Pennsylvania.
A NEW BEGINNING
Now the clock is counting again ahead of a new crucial date for the Democratic Party, such as the National Convention that begins on August 19 in Chicago (Illinois), the place where the final nominee of the political party must appear – with Harris already leading all the predictions – and even the name of whoever will accompany him as a candidate for the Vice Presidency.
With the rules in hand, it is a scenario that is far from ideal, because Biden has won all the primary elections in recent months without any rival and the Republican president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, one of the most powerful officials in the party, does not rule out appealing the possibility of the Democrats directly appointing a new candidate who has not obtained the necessary number of delegates at the polls to ratify his name.
However, political experts from the American media agree that, given Trump’s enormous interest in keeping Biden in the race, the appearance of a new candidate threatens to give another twist in the script at a time when the tycoon is going through the best moment in the polls since the beginning of the electoral race.
