Joe Biden’s presidential campaign staffers have spent the past week insisting everywhere that the president plans to stay in the race for the White House, despite many voices calling for him to withdraw and the fact that polls point to a defeat for him Trump in almost all competitive states, writes the BBC.
Even on Saturday, a day before the official announcement of the retirement, Biden staff members were brainstorming a campaign calendar for him, which would be used from the moment the president returned to the White House next week.
Biden has been at his beach house in Delaware for some time, isolating himself due to Covid-19. While there, the president consistently insisted that he was staying in the race, furious that a coordinated pressure effort had already formed to call for his withdrawal.
On Saturday night, Biden began to seriously consider retiring — one of the toughest decisions of his 50-year political career.
He spoke with a small circle of political underlings, including Steve Richetti, one of his closest advisers, Mike Donilon, his campaign’s chief strategist, Annie Tomasini, his deputy chief of staff, and Anthony Bernal, the chief of the cabinet of the first lady.
Richetti, who has been a close aide to Biden since he was a senator, came to the president’s beach house on Friday.
Donilon, another aide who has played a big role in all of Biden’s big policy decisions, also joined the discussion Saturday. Biden and his allies discussed poll numbers and ways he could still beat Donald Trump in the current political climate.
Faced with the sociological data and facing another week in which the political support of the Democrats would have continued to evaporate, the president made the decision.
Together with Donilon he wrote the withdrawal message, while Richetti made the preparations to disseminate the message publicly and to inform the other staff members as well.
Biden made the final decision on Sunday morning, calling chief of staff Jeff Zients, campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon and vice president Kamala Harris separately, according to BBC sources.
On Sunday, at 1:45 p.m. local time, the president had a video call with the most important members of his campaign staff, and a minute later he made public the message that shook the American political scene. Many White House and campaign staffers were not informed in advance of Biden’s plans to retire.
Most found out from the social media post. Zients, the president’s chief of staff, opened a video call with White House officials and sent an email to West Wing staff confirming the president’s decision and thanking them for their work. Meanwhile, Biden made calls to top Democrats — in Congress, governors and supporters.
It was Kamala Harris who spoke to political leaders in Congress, including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
