President Biden is scheduled to address the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday night for the first time since formally withdrawing from the 2024 election.
“Tomorrow at 8pm ET, I will address the nation from the Oval Office to outline the path forward and how I will finish the job for the American people,” Biden posted on his X account on Tuesday.
Biden has been in self-isolation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware since he was diagnosed with COVID-19 last Wednesday, and was forced to cancel a planned event in Las Vegas and fly back to his Delaware home. After his diagnosis, he suffered from “mild symptoms” and “general fatigue,” but returned to the White House on Tuesday after testing negative.
Tuesday’s return to the nation’s capital marks Biden’s first public appearance since abandoning his reelection bid on Sunday and his first since being diagnosed with COVID-19 on July 17.
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President Biden walks toward Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on July 23, 2024. (Reuters/Ken Cedeno)
Biden, his campaign and the White House have vowed for weeks that he remains in the election cycle and is determined to win a rematch against former President Trump, but Biden’s speech on Wednesday is expected to shed further light on why he is withdrawing from the 2024 race.
Since the end of World War II, only three sitting presidents have declined to run for a second term: Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Biden, all of whom were Democrats.
The 46th president had been under growing pressure from Democratic allies and legacy media to withdraw from the race since his June 27 debate with President Trump, during which he was peppered with incoherent comments, lost his train of thought and appeared more subdued than he has been at other recent public events.
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The debate rekindled concerns among conservatives and critics that Biden’s intellectual acuity is waning, while also kicking off a push within Democrats to oust him and field a candidate they believe is better qualified to take on Trump.
Vice President Harris speaks as President Biden listens at the White House on July 26, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Dozens of lawmakers have publicly thanked Biden for his work in the White House and decades of public service and have begun calling for him to pass the baton to another candidate. Biden’s announcement came just over a week after the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania and just days after the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump was certified as the GOP nominee.
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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and vice presidential nominee Senator J.D. Vance attend the Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 16, 2024. (Reuters/Elisabeth Franz)
Shortly after the announcement on Sunday afternoon, Biden endorsed Vice President Harris to succeed him as the party’s nominee. Harris had secured the delegate count needed to win the nomination as of Tuesday and is due to be confirmed at the Democratic National Convention next month.
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Harris is campaigning and considering options for a running mate, with political pundits including Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper among potential candidates.
Vice President Harris boarded Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on July 23, 2024. (REUTERS/Kevin Mohat/Pool)
Concerns about Biden’s health have been growing among conservatives and critics for years, with former White House physician Ronny Jackson sounding the alarm during the 2020 campaign before it reached a crescendo this summer.
“As a citizen, not just as a candidate running for Congress but as a citizen of this country, I have watched Joe Biden on the campaign trail and I am concerned and convinced that he does not have the mental capacity, the cognitive capacity to serve as our commander in chief and our head of state,” Jackson, now a Republican congressman from Texas, said in 2020.
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In February, Special Counsel Robert Hur released a report investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents after he left the vice presidency, adding fuel to fears about Biden’s health. In the report, Hur called Biden a “caring, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and said he would not recommend criminal charges against him for possessing classified documents after leaving the vice presidency.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre makes the remarks during the daily press briefing on July 9, 2024. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden administration and former Biden aides have repeatedly denied claims that the president suffers from an illness such as Parkinson’s disease or dementia amid growing concerns between the debate and Biden’s withdrawal. The White House also told Fox News Digital on Monday that the president’s health was not affecting his decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race.
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Now that the president has exited the election cycle, conservative lawmakers have called on Biden to step down from the White House, arguing that if he cannot run for reelection he is unfit to govern the nation in the roughly five months remaining in his term.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (Getty Images/File)
“If Joe Biden is unfit to run for president, he is unfit to serve. He must resign immediately. The sooner November 5th comes, the sooner we can,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said in a statement Sunday.
“If Democrats have determined that Joe Biden is unfit to run for reelection, they have clearly determined that he is unfit to control nuclear weapons codes,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) added. “Biden must resign immediately.”
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Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, also called for Biden to resign just hours before he formally announced his withdrawal.
“Once Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can we justify remaining in office? Not running for reelection would be a clear admission that President Trump was correct all along that Biden is not mentally qualified to be Commander in Chief. There is no middle ground,” Vance tweeted Sunday morning.
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images/File)
Amid growing concerns about Biden’s health, some are calling for Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tennessee, sent a letter to Harris on Thursday urging her to invoke the 25th Amendment, telling Fox News Digital exclusively that Biden dropped out of the race because he is “unfit for the office of the President and every American knows it.”
“I have said for over a year that Biden’s continuing declining health renders him unfit to lead our country. Although he has recently gone into seclusion following a suspected COVID-19 diagnosis, it is now more clear than ever that he will either resign or be forcibly removed from office. Because Biden has made it clear that he will not resign, it is imperative that VP Harris move immediately to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution and move to forcibly remove him from office. The safety and well-being of the American people and our nation depend on it,” Ogles said.
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Biden’s address on Wednesday will be delivered from the Oval Office at 8pm ET and is expected to focus on his exit from the campaign trail and his plans for the remainder of his term.
