Biden’s stunning exit, one year later: The dropout heard around the country

Former President Joe Biden suspended his re-election bid one year ago Monday, in an unprecedented move that ended his more than 50-year career in politics and rocked the Democratic Party, with those on the left still reeling from the impact.

On July 21, 2024, days after President Donald Trump accepted the GOP nomination, Biden ended his re-election campaign amid mounting pressure from within his own party.

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The unprecedented announcement came as an increasing number of Democrat lawmakers had started to publicly call for Biden to step aside, and the party’s leadership reportedly was engaged in efforts to convince Biden, then 81 years old, he could not win the November 2024 general election against Trump.

Doubts about Biden’s viability at the top of the Democratic Party’s 2024 ticket began seeping out into the mainstream after his halting delivery and awkward answers were placed on full display for a national audience during the June 2024 presidential debate with Trump in Atlanta.

The performance sparked widespread panic among Democrats and almost immediately spurred calls from political pundits, editorial writers and some party donors for Biden to step aside as the party’s 2024 standard-bearer.

As Biden struggled to regain his footing, an increasing number of House Democrats publicly urged the president to end his re-election bid.

Biden huddled with worried Democrats, including governors and congressional leaders, in the wake of the debate debacle and was also engaged in “working the phones,” according to campaign officials. 

Biden began the week of his withdrawal in a defiant posture, telling congressional Democrats he was committed to campaigning against and beating Trump. Biden also urged lawmakers to stop focusing on the debate and end the calls for his withdrawal — pleas that he said only helped Trump. 

Biden followed that up with a call with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and also gained the support of members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. 

EXCLUSIVE: WHITE HOUSE INVESTIGATING BIDEN USE OF AUTOPEN IN SPRAWLING PROBE OF ‘INCOMPETENT AND SENILE’ FORMER PRESIDENT

However, concerns mounted and intensified. Democratic lawmakers met behind closed doors hoping to come to a consensus and support the president, but some were hesitant. 

The Biden campaign met with Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill and, for days, the White House, the Biden campaign and the president himself said Biden had no intention of dropping out of the race. 

Then-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had told reporters that the president was “absolutely not” considering dropping out.

Additionally, Quentin Fulks, the principal deputy Biden campaign manager, emphasized that “the president is in this race to win it. He is the Democratic nominee.”

On the day after the presidential debate, Biden acknowledged at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, “I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious.”

Upon suspending his campaign, Biden quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his spot at the top of the ticket. She received the party’s presidential nominee weeks later at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Months later, Trump defeated Harris in a stunning, landslide victory, sweeping all swing states and delivering him a win in not only the Electoral College, but the popular vote as well. 

The Democratic Party is still grappling with Biden’s withdrawal a year later, looking for a new standard-bearer, while the former president and his team fall under investigation by both the executive and legislative branches. 

In May, leaked audio from Biden’s interview with former special counsel Robert Hur showed the president struggling with key memories, including when his son Beau died, when he left the vice presidency, why he had classified documents he shouldn’t have had and more. 

The audio was leaked after more than a year of congressional lawmakers demanding its release amid questions about the former president’s memory lapses and mental acuity.

Meanwhile, the White House Counsel’s Office and the Justice Department are probing Biden’s use of the autopen and whether signatures were printed at his direction or at the discretion of his senior staff. 

An autopen is a machine that physically holds a pen and features programming to imitate a person’s signature. Unlike a stamp or a digitized print of a signature, the autopen has the capability to hold various types of pens, from a ballpoint to a permanent marker, according to descriptions of autopen machines available for purchase. 

Biden used the autopen to sign a slew of documents while in office. He also used the autopen to sign final pardons, including preemptive pardons for members of his family, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley and members and staff of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots. He only signed one pardon by hand, for his son Hunter, after vowing to the American people for months he would not do so. 

In his final weeks in office, Biden granted clemency and pardoned more than 1,500 individuals, in what the White House described at the time as the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president.

Over on Capitol Hill, the House Oversight Committee is probing a cover-up of Biden’s declining mental health, subpoenaing a number of former Biden officials for testimony and the Senate Subcomittee on Investigations is requesting NARA records relating to Biden’s declining mental and physical health. 

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.