US President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign on Sunday after fellow Democrats lost faith in his mental acuity and ability to beat Donald Trump while endorsing Vice President Kamal Harris to replace him as the party's candidate.

Biden, 81, in a post on X, said he will remain in his role as president and commander-in-chief until his term ends in January 2025 and will address the nation this week.

"It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term," Biden wrote.

His initial statement had not included an endorsement of Harris, but he followed up a few minutes later with an expression of support.

Harris, 59, would become the first Black woman to run at the top of a major-party ticket in the country's history.

It was unclear whether other senior Democrats would challenge Harris for the party's nomination – she was widely seen as the pick for many party officials – or whether the party itself would choose to open the field for nominations.

Biden's announcement follows a wave of public and private pressure from Democratic lawmakers and party officials to quit the race after his shockingly poor performance in a June 27 televised debate last month against Republican rival Trump, 78.

Biden's failure at times to complete clear sentences took the public spotlight away from Trump's performance, in which he made a string of false statements, and trained it instead on questions surrounding Biden's fitness for another four-year term.

Biden's historic move – the first sitting president to give up his party's nomination for reelection since President Lyndon Johnson in March 1968 – leaves his replacement with less than four months to wage a campaign.

If Harris emerges as the nominee, the move would represent an unprecedented gamble by the Democratic Party: its first Black and Asian American woman to run for the White House in a country that has elected one Black president and never a woman president in more than two centuries of democracy. (Reuters)
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Last updated: 2024-07-22 HKT 02:27