US President Joe Biden endorses Kamala Harris | BBC News

just hearing via the roor news agency Uh I onlyi that Joe Biden is saying that he supports vice president carala Harris as his replacement not a surprise I suppose but um the party will will want to get on with this quickly the Republicans meanwhile will make hay from all of this that's right uh I can read you the statement that Joe Biden has put out he has as you say endorsed vice president Harris he said my fellow Democrats I've decided not to accept the nomination and focus all my duties on my duties as president for the remainder of my term my very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my vice president he also goes on to say it's been the best decision I've made and today he wants to offer his full support and endorsement for KLA to be the nominee of the Democrats this year he said it's time to come together and beat Trump and in his words let's do this now it's interesting there's kind of Echoes there of uh you might remember that famous clip when Joe Biden won uh the last presidential election there was a clip of kamla Harris that kind of went viral at the time where she said Joe we did this and clearly he's now sort of almost reflecting that back to her he wants her to be the one who takes this battern on now to try and beat Donald Trump and I think that was really the growing concern as we've discussed already about whether he was able to beat Donald Trump uh the polls were certainly suggesting that he wasn't n in a good position to um there was widespread concern across the Democratic party about whether he would even be able to win the Senate of the house uh with him as leader so I think he has clearly decided to make that endorsement very swiftly I think we're probably going to see now a series of sort of statements from him as this resignation uh sort of news develops I think he'll be wanting to kind of make a series of statements probably as well a public speech when he is feeling uh strong enough to do so of course he has been recovering as we've discussed from covid um but I think one of the reasons for sort of getting this endorsement out the door very quickly has been to try to encourage as little chaos and disruption as possible now I think he wants as he's outlined in the statement the party to try and sort of resolutely get behind her the question will be do they is there any you know are there are there Democrats who just don't want to endorse Camila Harris feel like she has been imposed on them as a candidate um and I think that will be the question that sort of follows Democrats around now for the next couple of days uh we're also uh hearing again via the Rey's news agency that Donald Trump has been speaking to one of the American networks CNN and he says that he thinks that vice president har Harris will be easier to defeat than Joe Biden after Mr Biden decided to step down I mean we would expect him to say that wouldn't we that's right um interestingly though over the last couple of weeks obviously these are only polls polls only suggest things they don't give with certainty what would happen but there have certainly be polls suggesting that uh Kamala Harris was actually better place to defeat Donald Trump than Joe Biden was given the concern around his health his Fitness for office um I think one of the things that's interesting though as well over the weekend there was a number of reports suggesting uh that the Trump campaign were gearing up a series of attacks towards kamla Harris almost in anticipation of the fact that he might resign and she would be uh the person that he endorses to replace him and I think we are likely now to see over the next couple of weeks we'll see the direct attacks made from the Trump campaign on kamla Harris obviously all their attention now will be on how they um show that they are better place to win this election than she is because a lot of their a lot of their sort of election attacks so far have centered on Joe that Infamous phrase we've heard a lot of times now from uh the former president Trump sleepy Joe you know he's certainly kind of played on the criticisms of Joe Biden and his uh well sort of how sharp he has been for example in some debates and interviews now I think all that energy is going to be diver Ed into trying to undermine attack kamla Harris and and sort of her um You Know Her Image her Fitness for office as well from Trump's side of course it is important to remember that although um Joe Biden has endorsed Kamala Harris she isn't yet the candidate we are still uh waiting to find out what Democrats will do over the next couple of days and whether or not she will actually end up being formally endorsed and nominated as the candidate meanwhile um the US Senate Democratic leader um Chuck schuma has said that um Biden once again put his country his party and our future first this is where we get the the reframing that PR exercise isn't it where where the Democrats of course frame this is as this is Joe Biden doing The Honorable thing in the interest of the United States whereas the Republicans will make will will make uh Capital out of it by saying this part's in disarray how can you reelect them that's right we were talking about this just moments ago weren't we that essentially now what is likely to happen is even some of these senior figures who were only days ago saying that President Biden should step aside and now coming out to defend his record and defend his legacy and I think that is something we will see more of as I mentioned earlier because it is certainly likely that after this week these weeks and weeks of chaos of disunity uh the party will now want to show that they are fit for office that they are the party of government and I think as a result you will see lots more people trying to draw on his record draw on things like the reduction act like investment in creating new jobs across the country particularly in some states that were traditionally Republican as well I think those are things that he uh him and his allies even his critics will want to try and show in the next couple of days to make this resignation a sort of uh I suppose as as sort of chaos free as as possible um I think though there is an element to which it is already almost gone too far it's hard to now avoid I think for the party this image of disunity of chaos after we've seen this this momentum build over the last couple of weeks but certainly I think now the Democrats attention will swiftly turn to trying to you know really kind of show who their next candidate is going to be make sure there is as much Unity as possible but also as we've touched on there reflect on on Joe Biden's Legacy what Democrats can do if in power I think that is the message they will want to try and send over the days to come let's just recap if you're just joining us here on uh BBC News this uh breaking news this developing story that we're reporting tonight is that Joe Biden has decided to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race and as we were just reporting um as of last night Saturday night he had planned to stay in the race and the Reuters news agency are saying that a source familiar with this matter has now revealed that on Sunday afternoon senior staff were told that Joe Biden was in fact withdrawing and the quote says last night the message was proceed with everything Full Speed Ahead but around a qu to 2 this afternoon the president told his senior team that he had changed his mind so I only it'll be fascinating to learn who he discussed this with that brought about that change of heart overnight that's right because there was growing speculation and reports over the weekend uh that not just close AIDS of his not just close allies like the former president Barack Obama but also members of his family his sort of really close Inner Circle had been discussing this issue with him also discussing even potentially plans for him to stand down how they would sort of manage that uh going forward so I think there's probably been well there have inevitably been a series of discussions that have taken place but I think one of the things that is really interesting is just how quickly uh this has sort of happened as you say in the last 24 hours there's been this sort of tone shift because it was only I think about 24 hours ago that he himself was saying he was looking forward to getting back campaigning this week his campaign was saying that now of course there is an element to which if somebody is about to resign of course until the moment they actually do uh they are going to carry on as normal act like things are normal but I think the sort of defiance that he was going about those statements uh did imply to some people that he was digging in for a bit longer um and so the fact that he has now dropped this in the middle of the afternoon on Sunday when he's not at the White House he's been isolating at his holiday home in Delaware certainly come as a surprise to a lot of people here um and I think that is kind of as you say it will be interesting to find out more about what it was in the last moment that changed his mind from his statement he stresses that this was about essentially um trying to put the country and the party first and do what is in the best interests of the United States and I think that's a message we'll hear again from him when he does address the public address his party at some point he has said that he will speak to the nation later this week and he will talk in more detail detail about his decision so I think we will get more information from him personally about what led him to take that decision in the 11th Hour