WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Sunday dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s nominee, a stunning decision that came after weeks of pressure for the 81-year-old to quit the contest against former President Donald Trump.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden wrote in a post on the social media site X. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and my country for me to stand down and to focus solely on my duties as President for the rest of my term.”

Biden made the announcement from his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he’s self-isolated since testing positive for COVID-19 Thursday night.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden said in a written statement. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and my country for me to stand down and to focus solely on my duties as President for the rest of my term.”

In his statement, Biden reflected on his four years in office, saying the U.S. has built the “strongest economy in the world” while touting efforts to lower prescription drug prices, expand health care, tackle climate change and appointing the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

He extended gratitude to Ms. Harris, who is of Indian origin, for being an “extraordinary partner” on Sunday and said he’s offering “my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.”

“I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing American can’t do – when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United State of America,” Biden said.

The president said he would speak to the nation later this week to provide more detail about his decision.

It marks an extraordinary turn for Biden, who for three weeks remained defiant in the face of growing calls from Democratic lawmakers that he withdraw after a disastrous June 27 debate with Trump raised scrutiny over the president’s mental fitness.

Biden’s exit came after he received bleak warnings from Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, that his candidacy could lead to massive losses for Democrats in the Senate and House.

More than 30 congressional Democrats called for Biden to bow out, and former President Barack Obama reportedly relayed similar fears to Democratic allies about Biden’s prospects of beating Trump. Democratic donors from Hollywood to Wall Street also came out against Biden continuing his reelection bid.

The decision upends the 2024 election less than 110 days before Election Day, with Democratic National Committee members now tasked with choosing an alternative nominee to take on Trump, whose polling lead has boosted while Democrats have fought internally.

With Biden’s endorsement, Harris is the clear frontrunner to replace Biden as the Democratic nominee, but the party’s bench of Democratic governors could also be in the mix including Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Gavin Newsom of California.

If chosen as the Democratic candidate, Ms. Harris, a 59-year-old former prosecutor and California senator, would become the first Black woman to run at the top of the election ticket for a major party in the country’s history.

On his part, Biden becomes the first incumbent president not to seek reelection since Lyndon B. Johnson who, in 1968 amid national unrest and turmoil within the Democratic Party over the Vietnam War, stunned the nation with his decision not to seek a second full term.

Biden has battled Americans’ concerns over his age since he took office but it turned into panic for Democrats after last month’s first debate with Trump, the Republican nominee. Biden’s voice sounded faint, he struggled to complete sentences and finish thoughts, and he failed to rebut many many of Trump’s claims on the debate stage.

Biden’s campaign was in a free fall over the past few weeks with his future in doubt. Instead of focusing solely on Trump, Democrats spent as much time and energy debating whether Biden could even defeat his predecessor.

Fundraising for the Biden campaign took a dramatic hit. And Biden not only fell behind in key battleground states that will decide the election, but his growing unpopularity seemed to put recent Democratic strongholds like Virginia in play for Trump.

Biden’s departure will soon mean the end of a five-decade career in Washington that began in 1972 with an upset victory for U.S. Senate in Delaware. He served as a senator for 36 years, then as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017. Biden returned to public life to run against Trump in the 2020 presidential election, beating Trump 51%-47% in the popular vote.

First lady Jill Biden on Sunday re-posted the president’s message with heart emotions.