Biden set to address nation after pressured exit from 2024 race
President Biden is set to address the nation on Wednesday evening from the Oval Office for the first time since he officially dropped out of the 2024 election.
"Tomorrow evening at 8 PM ET, I will address the nation from the Oval Office on what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people," Biden posted to his X account on Tuesday.
Biden had been self-isolating in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, since last Wednesday, when he was diagnosed with COVID-19, which forced him to cancel scheduled events in Las Vegas and fly back to his home in The First State. After suffering "mild symptoms" and "general malaise" after his diagnosis, he received a negative diagnosis on Tuesday of this week and returned to the White House.
His trip back to the nation's capital on Tuesday marked the first time Biden was seen in public since suspending his re-election bid on Sunday and the first time since being diagnosed with COVID-19 on July 17.
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Biden's address Wednesday is expected to shed additional light on his departure from the 2024 race after he, his campaign and the White House vowed for weeks that Biden would remain in the election cycle and was determined to win in the rematch against former President Trump.
Since the end of World War II, there have only been three incumbent presidents, all Democrats, who turned down running for a second term: Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Biden.
The 46th president had faced mounting pressure from his Democrat allies and legacy media outlets to bow out of the race since June 27, when he delivered a botched debate performance against Trump that was riddled with garbled remarks and where the president lost his train of thought and appeared more subdued than during other recent public events.
The debate reignited concern among conservatives and critics that Biden's mental acuity had slipped, while it marked the beginning of a pressure campaign among Democrats to oust Biden in favor of a candidate they believed is better suited to take on Trump.
Dozens of members of Congress began publicly thanking Biden for his work in the White House and decades in public office while calling on him to pass the torch to another candidate. He made the announcement just more than a week after an assassination attempt on Trump's life during a rally in Pennsylvania and just days after the Republican National Convention wrapped up in Milwaukee, where Trump was certified as the Republican Party's nominee.
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Shortly after his announcement on Sunday afternoon, Biden endorsed Vice President Harris to pick up the mantle and make a run for the party's nomination. As of Tuesday, Harris had enough delegates to lock up the nomination, which will be certified by the DNC next month.
Harris is hitting the campaign trail and weighing running mate options as potential contenders such as Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and others are floated by political pundits.
Concerns over Biden's health mounted for years among conservatives and critics, including former White House physician Ronny Jackson sounding the alarm during the 2020 election cycle, ahead of hitting a fever pitch this summer.
"As a citizen, not as a candidate running for Congress but as a citizen of this country, I’ve watched Joe Biden on the campaign trail, and I am concerned and convinced that he does not have the mental capacity, the cognitive ability, to serve as our commander in chief and our head of state," Jackson, who is now a Republican congressman representing Texas, said in 2020.
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In February this year, Special Counsel Robert Hur published his report investigating the president's handling of classified documents after his departure as vice president in the Obama administration, which fanned the flames about Biden's health concerns. The report stated that Hur would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, calling Biden "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
The Biden administration and former Biden campaign repeatedly shut down any claims that the president was suffering from a disease such as Parkinson's or dementia as concerns mounted between the debate and Biden dropping out. The White House additionally told Fox News Digital on Monday that the president's health did not play a role in his departure from the 2024 race.
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Now that the president has dropped out of the election cycle, conservative lawmakers and others have called on Biden to resign from the White House, arguing that if he is unable to run for re-election, he's unfit to run the nation for the roughly five months left of his tenure.
"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."
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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.
Others have called on Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment while concerns mount over Biden's health. Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles sent a letter to Harris on Thursday requesting she invoke the 25th Amendment, exclusively telling Fox News Digital that Biden left the race "because he isn’t up for the job of president, and everyone in America knows it."
"I’ve said for over a year that Biden’s ever-declining health has rendered him incapable of leading the nation. With his recent reclusion following a supposed COVID diagnosis, it is now more apparent than ever that he must resign or be forced out. Since Biden has made it clear he will not resign, it is imperative that Vice President Harris move forward with invoking the provisions of the 25th Amendment to remove him forcibly. The safety and well-being of the American people and our nation depend upon it," Ogles said.
Biden's address on Wednesday will be delivered from the Oval Office at 8 p.m. ET and will focus on his withdrawal from the race and his plans for the remaining months in office.