US President Joe Biden has announced he is withdrawing as the Democratic candidate for the US Presidential election.
The 81-year-old confirmed the news through a letter posted to the X social media platform early on Monday morning (AEST).
“It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve as your President,” he wrote.
“And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.
“I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision.”
In a further post, Biden said he would support Vice President Kamala Harris to run at the top of the Democratic ticket, the first black woman to do so in the country’s history.
“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” the post read.
Biden’s decision comes after weeks of intense scrutiny about whether he was capable of running again, following a nightmare performance in the first Presidential debate.
That performance lead to growing defections in the party’s ranks, with the Democratic caucus split on whether he should step aside.
The question marks over his ability to run again were raised again after the NATO summit in Washington, where he referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as his Russian rival Vladimir Putin and also called Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump”.
