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0What Biden quitting means for Harris, the Democrats and Trump
July 22, 2024, BBC
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Joe Biden has turned the US election on its head. After fiercely insisting for weeks that he would remain the Democratic nominee for president, he has bowed to pressure and dropped out of the race.
Here's what it means for Vice-President Kamala Harris, for the Democrats more broadly and for Donald Trump.
Harris is a risk but one many Democrats will want to take
The prospects for Kamala Harris being the Democratic nominee have received a big boost with Joe Biden’s endorsement.
He gave her his full backing, calling his decision to make her vice-president four years ago the best he ever made.
She responded by saying she was honoured to have his endorsement and would do everything possible to win the nomination.
It is possible that most Democrats will follow the president’s lead and fall in line behind the vice-president to avoid ongoing uncertainty less than a month from the Democratic convention.
There are practical and political reasons for doing so.
She is next in the constitutional line of succession. The optics of passing over the first black woman on a presidential ticket would be terrible for the party. She would also immediately have access to the roughly $100 million in funds the campaign has raised so far.
But there are also risks. Public opinion surveys show Harris’ approval ratings are about as low as his. And in head-to-head matchups against Donald Trump, she fares roughly the same as Biden.
Second is that Harris has had a sometimes rocky time as vice-president. Early in the administration, she was given the task of addressing the root causes of the migration crisis at the US-Mexico border.
That’s a daunting challenge, and a number of missteps and misstatements opened her up to criticism. She’s also been the administration’s point person on abortion rights, which has been a topic she has much more effectively handled. But those first impressions have stuck.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Harris has already run for national office — her 2020 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination — and stumbled badly.
