Biden endorses Harris as Democratic candidate
Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram responded to President Biden’s announcement that he is withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race and endorsing Vice President Harris.
Former President Trump has a slight lead over President Biden, according to a Fox News poll, following a disastrous showing in last month’s 46th presidential debate, but Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he will not seek reelection threw the election cycle into disarray.
“Serving as your president has been the greatest honor of my life. Seeking reelection“I believe it is in the best interest of my party and my country for me to step aside and focus on fulfilling the duties of my presidency for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in the letter posted to X on Sunday afternoon.
A national poll released by Fox News last week showed Biden leading by two points (50% to 48%) last month, but now Trump is leading by one point (49% to 48%), exactly where he was in May.
Asked how Trump would fare against a non-presidential candidate, Democratic strategist Julian Epstein told Fox News Digital that a “ham sandwich” would likely do better in the polls than Biden.
With Biden’s campaign halted, what’s next for Democrats?
President Biden and Vice President Harris (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/File)
“At this point, a ham sandwich would probably have a better chance of winning the general election than Biden,” he said. “There are also public polls that suggest the younger candidate has an advantage over Trump.”
“If Democrats were smart, they would find a younger, more attractive governor. [in] “They were in their 40s and 50s and in the political center stage. But the Democrats are wise to the situation and give them the great doubt,” Epstein added.
Read: Biden withdraws from 2024 race via letter
Biden’s endorsement came shortly after Harris’s announcement, and other Democrats including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have also been mentioned as potential candidates.
Harris has garnered further support from prominent Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, making her a leading candidate to succeed Biden.
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll shows Harris has a notably lower favorability rating than Trump, who received the highest favorability rating in the poll’s history at 40 percent, up from the former president’s usual low-to-mid 30s in polls. Harris’ favorability rating, at 35 percent, was lower than Trump’s.
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From left, Sen. J.D. Vance, former President Trump and Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump at the Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on July 18, 2024. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital asked Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week whether a candidate other than Biden would weaken Trump’s chances of getting into the White House. Greene denied this, arguing that whoever succeeds him must rely on Biden’s record in the White House.
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“Whoever comes out on top has to run on the jobs record that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have delivered over the last few years, because the Democratic Party is totally aligned with those policies,” Greene said.
“After watching the attempted assassination of President Trump on Saturday, I think America has really come together and decided to support President Trump and the Republican Party. Just like 9/11, it’s a moment that everyone will always remember. Everyone remembers where they were when it happened. I also think people are really tired of the border invasions that are happening every day. The fact that people can’t afford food, rent and are struggling with inflation is really hurting a lot of people,” she added.
Harris has a long history as a liberal California stalwart, serving as San Francisco’s district attorney in the early 2000s, then as the state’s attorney general under former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and serving as a U.S. senator from California before being elected vice president in 2020.
If Harris were to carry the party’s flag in the 2024 presidential election, she could lean further to the left on issues such as immigration, abortion and foreign policy, but her policies are unlikely to differ significantly from Biden’s platform.
Three Democratic representatives voiced their support for Harris in comments to Fox News Digital on Sunday, with one saying the party was “100 percent behind Kamala Harris.”
Vice President Harris (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
“The Florida delegation that I’m speaking with is 100% behind President Biden endorsing Kamala Harris,” said Democratic representative and Florida Rep. Samantha Hope Herring. Florida Democratic National Convention.
Karl Gentles, a Democrat who sympathizes with Herring Representative from Arizonatold Fox he supports Harris and intends to vote for her at the caucus.
“While it is disappointing news that Biden has decided not to seek reelection, he has demonstrated that leadership begins with putting country first above all else. He understands what is at stake for the future of our country and how important it is to win this election,” he said. “I support Vice President Harris and will be voting for her at the Democratic National Convention.”
Responding to news of Biden’s withdrawal, President Trump slammed him as “the worst president in the history of the United States.”
“He’s the worst president in the history of our country,” Trump said in a phone interview with Fox News Digital on Sunday afternoon. “We’ve never had a worse president.”
“He’s unfit to be president,” Trump continued, “so I ask the question: Who’s going to run this country for the next five months?”
Trump added to CNN on Sunday that he believes it would be easier to defeat Harris in November than it would be to beat Biden if she becomes the official nominee.
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Just two days before the Republican National Convention began, Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, that injured Trump and two others and killed a local father, 50-year-old Corey Comperatore.
Former President Trump survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. (Trump Campaign Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Epstein said Biden is “only half the problem” for Democrats.
“The other half is that the American people don’t like what this administration has done over the last four years, and that applies to every issue except abortion,” he said.
He argued that with the Democratic Party “correcting course,” “they shouldn’t do things half-heartedly by appointing a Biden surrogate. They should do a complete course correction and find the political middle ground with a younger candidate.”
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Calls had been growing for weeks that Biden should drop out of the race after he stumbled over his responses in a June 27 debate with Trump and appeared much more subdued than in his other public appearances.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee contributed to this report.
