A list of former President Obama’s allies and former advisers helped lead the charge in calling on President Biden to drop out of the 2024 race before he officially ended his campaign on Sunday afternoon.
Biden officially dropped out of the 2024 race after weeks of increasing pressure from traditional Democrat allies to bow out after his disastrous debate performance against former President Trump last month, which put concerns surrounding his mental acuity and 81 years of age under increasing scrutiny.
“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,” Biden posted on X after he dropped out of the race on Sunday afternoon.
“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,” he said in a separate social media post.
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Among some of the most noteworthy voices calling on Biden to bow out were allies of Obama’s, including his former adviser, David Axelrod, who said this month that Biden is “not winning this race.” Biden served as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017.
“There are certain immutable facts of life,” Axelrod said in an interview with CNN while discussing Biden’s age and leadership. “Those were painfully obvious on that debate stage. The president just … hasn’t come to grips with it. He’s not winning this race.”
Axelrod formerly served as Obama’s chief campaign strategist, and he said Biden is used to fighting “his way back from political defeats and against the odds.”
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“So, his psyche is that he can beat anybody and any long odds,” he said this month. “What he can’t beat is Father Time.”
“And that’s really the concern here. It’s not about his record,” Axelrod continued.
Axelrod was soon followed by actor George Clooney calling on Biden to drop out of the race in a bombshell op-ed that was published just weeks after the Hollywood star co-hosted Biden, alongside Obama, for a ritzy campaign event in Los Angeles. Clooney has long had a personal friendship with Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, including vacationing with the first couple in previous years.
“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010,” Clooney wrote in a New York Times op-ed. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Another ally in Obama’s orbit, Jon Favreau, who served as former director of speech writing for Obama, also called on Biden to drop out of the race this month, saying he attended the fundraiser in L.A. with Clooney and Obama and saw Biden’s state of mental acuity.
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“It was not surprising to any of us who were at the fundraiser. I was there. Clooney was exactly right, and every single person I talked to at the fundraiser thought the same thing, except for the people working for Joe Biden, or at least they didn’t say that,” Jon Favreau said during an appearance on CNN this month.
“I remember my wife, Emily, turned to me after the fundraiser and said, ‘What are we going to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, there is a debate in a week. Either he’ll do well in the debate, and we’ll think he was just tired because he flew all the way back from Europe, and that’ll be that, or he’ll be like this at the debate and then the whole country will be talking about it. So, here we are.”
Favreau, alongside former Obama advisers Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor – known collectively as the “Obama Bros” when they worked in the White House – dedicated the majority of a podcast episode of “Pod Save America” this month to trashing Biden.
“I thought it was bad, and at times very hard to watch,” Vietor said, referring to Biden’s sit-down interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos after Biden’s debate performance.
Vietor said it “seems like a clear-cut choice that we’d have a better chance with someone else,” while Lovett added that Biden wasn’t “delivering the message effectively.”
Up until Sunday afternoon, Biden and his campaign remained adamant that the president would not bow out of the race.
Obama has remained relatively silent while Biden weighed his options for the election, coming to Biden’s defense after his recent debate performance but not responding to media reports that he was working behind the scenes to promote Biden’s exit.
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“Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November,” he posted on X at the time.
As media reports circulated that Obama was working “behind the scenes” to oust Biden from the race, the 44th president remained mum, not denying the reports. Politico reported that Clooney even gave Obama a “heads-up” that his op-ed calling on Biden to bow out of the race was set to publish, with Obama reportedly not objecting to the opinion piece.
Obama released a statement on Sunday commending Biden for his work in the Oval Office, but he did not tip his hand as to who he believes should pick up the mantle now that the president is no longer running for re-election. Biden, as well as the Clintons and other powerful Democrats, announced their endorsement of Vice President Harris shortly after Biden’s announcement.
“We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead. But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges. I believe that Joe Biden’s vision of a generous, prosperous, and united America that provides opportunity for everyone will be on full display at the Democratic Convention in August. And I expect that every single one of us are prepared to carry that message of hope and progress forward into November and beyond,” Obama wrote on Sunday in a lengthy statement.
“Joe Biden has been one of America’s most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me. Today, we’ve also been reminded — again — that he’s a patriot of the highest order,” Obama added.
Amid the speculation that Biden would drop out, the Associated Press reported that Obama, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi were reportedly working in the background to encourage Biden to drop out due to concerns he could not defeat Trump.
Pelosi notably suggested this month that Biden’s previously adamant resolve to remain in the race was not his final decision.
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“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” she said this month on MSNBC. “We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short.”
Obama had joined Biden for a handful of campaign events since last year, but long before joining Biden on the campaign trail – or even endorsing his former running mate – Obama cautioned Biden against seeking the White House, citing fears that the campaign could “damage his legacy,” according to a 2019 New York Times report.
“You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t,” Obama reportedly told Biden in 2019.
“Win or lose, they needed to make sure Mr. Biden did not ‘embarrass himself’ or ‘damage his legacy’ during the campaign,” the New York Times reported, citing two people with knowledge of the conversation.
Biden had made a series of gaffes before becoming Obama’s running mate in 2008, including in 2007 when Biden was about to declare his own run for the White House. On the eve of his announcement, Biden described Obama to a reporter as “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
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Obama had remained coy about who he would endorse in the 2020 election, saying he would not back anyone during the primary. As Democrat contenders such as Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the primary race and cleared a path for Biden, Obama endorsed his former veep in August 2020.
As Democrats suss out who they will officially nominate for the 2024 election, some in the president’s orbit have pinned blame on his failed 2024 race on donors and “electeds.”
“Now that the donors and electeds have pushed out the only candidate who has ever beaten Trump, it’s time to end the political fantasy games and unite behind the only veteran of a national campaign — our outstanding @vp @KamalaHarris!! Let’s get real and win in November!,” former White House chief of staff Ron Klain posted on X.
After Biden’s announcement, Republicans have demanded the president resign from office, arguing that if he is unable to run for another term, he’s unable to fulfill his duties as president for the rest of his term.
“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement on Sunday.
“If the Democrat party has deemed Joe Biden unfit to run for re-election, he’s certainly unfit to control our nuclear codes,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., added. “Biden must step down from office immediately.”
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, also called on Biden to resign hours before he officially announced he was dropping out.
“If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining President? Not running for reelection would be a clear admission that President Trump was right all along about Biden not being mentally fit enough to serve as Commander-in-Chief. There is no middle ground,” Vance tweeted Sunday morning.
Fox News Digital’s Brandon Gillespie and Liz Elkind contributed to this report.
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