WASHINGTON: USPresident Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he is withdrawing from the race to be president for a second term.
The announcement on his personal X account came after massive pressure from within his own Democratic Party not to put himself forward as the party's official nominee.A television debate performance against his rival Donald Trump at the end of June, during which 81-year-old Biden struggled several times to give coherent answers or challenge falsehoods uttered by Trump, prompted nationwide concern about whether he was still mentally fit for office.
The issue of Biden's age has since dominated the US election campaign, overshadowed a NATO summit, and been used repeatedly by Republican Trump, 78, as ammunition against his Democratic rival.
Until now, Biden had insisted that he would run as the Democratic candidate in the November 5 election and that he was fit for office, at one point saying that "only the Almighty" could make him drop out of the race.
With the party's presumptive nominee now gone, the clock is ticking for Democrats to begin the fraught process of replacing him and launching a viable campaign to take on Trump.
In his post, Biden did not explicitly endorseVice President Kamala Harris to be his replacement.
