President Joe Biden said he believed he made the right decision in ending his re-election bid in a phone call with campaign officials on Monday. He said the mission “hasn’t changed at all” now that he had endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him. the Democratic candidate.
“I want people to remember that what we did is incredible,” the president told campaign workers in Wilmington, Delaware, during a surprise call. ‘Hug her, she’s the best. I know yesterday’s news is surprising and hard for you to hear, but it was the right thing to do.
“I know it’s hard because you poured your heart and soul into me,” Biden added. “But… I think we made the right decision.”
Harris officially launched her bid for the Democratic nomination on Monday, after the president announced a day earlier that he would end his bid over concerns about his age and his ability to challenge Donald Trump in November. Her campaign has gone stratospheric in the past 24 hours, with lawmakers across the country rallying behind her.
The Harris campaign said it had raised a record $81 million since she announced her bid, a necessary jolt to the Democratic Party after Trump’s own massive fundraising campaign.
Harris unleashed her own rebuke of Trump during a speech at campaign headquarters in Delaware on Monday, saying her record as a prosecutor had prepared her to challenge “all types of perpetrators.”
“In those roles, I took on all kinds of perpetrators: predators who abused women, fraudsters who defrauded consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” she said. “So listen to me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type.”
Biden emphasized Monday that he would continue his work through the final six months of his presidency, determined “to get as much done as possible.” That also included efforts to tackle climate change and end the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, he said.
“Now the name at the top of the card has changed, but the mission hasn’t changed at all,” the president said. “I’m not going anywhere, I’m going to work hard as a sitting president, but also as a campaigner.”