Dr. Shaher Zakaria
US President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and endorsed his Vice-President Kamala Harris to succeed him as the Democratic candidate for the US presidency. This remarkable decision has changed an already tense race for the White House and comes during a turbulent period in US politics. Biden, who is 81, said in a written statement that it was the “greatest honor” to serve and that his withdrawal from the US presidential campaign was “in the best interest of my party and the country.” Harris, who is 59, said that she was honored to be endorsed by the president and that she will be working hard to earn and win the democratic nomination for the presidency as she tries to unite the country against Trump.
The past few weeks, President Biden felt isolated, angry, and betrayed by his allies, such as former president Barack Obama, former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and former president Bill and Hillary Clinton, who quickly turned their backs on him in his time of need fearing that he will not be able to beat Trump a second time. However, this is the simple yet hard cold truth about politics. When times get rough, politicians put feelings and favors aside and think about power and their party. Age has been Biden’s biggest political weakness ever since he launched his presidential bid against former President Donald Trump. Nevertheless, Biden’s disastrous performance at CNN’s debate on June 27 shocked many Americans as well as his party and proved to be the catalyst to put the last nail in his political coffin. After the debate, an increasing number of Democrats called on the president to think about stepping aside in the 2024 race and urged him to put party over ego.
To combat those calls, Biden held several events trying to prove his fitness for the office of the presidency, to no avail. This forced him to reluctantly accept his fate of not running again for the White House ending a career that spanned over half a century in American politics.
What will happen next is that the Democratic Party will choose a new nominee. That decision will be made by about 4,700 delegates to the Democratic National Convention which will take place on August 19 in Chicago. Its important to note that Biden has won nearly all these delegates during the primary process. The delegates can vote however they like; however it is safe to say that they will largely back whoever Biden picked as a nominee for the presidency. Some Democrats have called for an open process to replace him, to see other candidates in addition to Harris join the race. The democratic campaign for presidency had about $96 million at the end of June to spend and that money would be directly available for the Democrats’ presidential ticket
Kamala Harris spent most of her public life as a prosecutor than a senator out of California or a vice president. The next few weeks will be interesting to see how she will run against Trump, however it is believed that she will run against the former president as a prosecutor. Her plan would be to shed a big spotlight on her background as a district attorney, attorney general, and cross-examiner in Senate hearings. She will also focus on her time and policies that she helped advance during her time as a vice president. She will make the race about one thing: prosecutor vs. felon. In a head to head match up between Harris and Trump, the former president holds a slight edge, however it is still too early to predict the winner as there will be many surprises as well as a few debates between the two candidates. .
Dr. Shaher Zakaria is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at Lusail University – Doha, Qatar.
Dr. Shaher Zakaria is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at Lusail University – Doha, Qatar.
