As we wrote earlier on Sunday, President Joe Biden has chosen to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat party’s standard bearer.
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In an X post giving Harris the nod, he wrote:
My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies 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. 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. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.
There have been reactions across the spectrum of politics, including from Republicans and Democrats (both in and out of leadership), to Biden’s departure from the race:
That Was Fast: Bill and Hillary Clinton Are All In on Kamala Harris for President
Pelosi Chimes In on Biden Stepping Away From 2024 Reelection Bid
Top Republican Leaders Call for Joe Biden to Resign Presidency
Now, Kamala Harris has reacted to Biden’s stepping aside and endorsing her as the presidential nominee.
via The Hill:
“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” she said in a statement.
“Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead. I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” she added.
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The vice president thanked Biden for his decades of service and said his “remarkable legacy of accomplishment is unmatched in modern American history.” She called his decision to back out of the race a “selfless and patriotic act” and she recalled first getting to know Biden through his late son, Beau, who was an attorney general with Harris.
“We have 107 days until Election Day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win,” Harris said.
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But there might be a hitch in what some Democrats are hoping for–an automatic switch from Biden to Harris as the nominee, my colleague Streiff writes, as House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday on ABC’s “This Week”:
From Johnson’s statement, he seems to visualize a challenge based on primary results.
So, it would be wrong and I think unlawful in accordance to some of these state rules for a handful of people to go in the backroom and switch it out because they’re — they don’t like the candidate any longer. That’s not how this is supposed to work.
So, I think they would run into some legal impediments in at least a few of these jurisdictions and I think they’ll be a compelling case to be made that that shouldn’t happen, and so I think they got legal trouble if that’s their — if that’s their intention and that’s their plan.
Read Related:
Speaker Johnson Hints at Legal Challenges to Attempts to Replace Biden on Ballots
As Johnson said in his remarks, “So, we’ll see how it plays out.”
There’s also this new statement from the Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison–which, curiously, leaves out Harris’ name:
“In the coming days, the Party will undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November,” he said. “This process will be governed by established rules and procedures of the Party. Our delegates are prepared to take seriously their responsibility in swiftly delivering a candidate to the American people.”
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We’ll keep you posted as the (likely rocky) process goes forward on that side of the aisle.