President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he was withdrawing from the US presidential race. The president announced the decision in a post on Twitter X (formerly Twitter), just days after testing positive for COVID-19.
In a later post, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and called on Democrats to “unite” on the issue and “defeat Trump.” The news came less than a month before a historically crucial and unusually packed Democratic National Convention.
Biden’s announcement said he intended to seek reelection but concluded that “it is in the best interest of my party and my country to step aside from the presidency for the remainder of my term and focus on the duties of my presidency.” The outgoing US leader said he would provide further explanation “later this week,” but it is unlikely to be revealed. Calls for Biden to step down from both Democratic Party officials and donors have intensified in recent weeks after his disastrous performance in the presidential debate in June.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
Former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump has received increasingly vocal support in recent weeks from Silicon Valley elites such as Elon Musk and investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It has long been a magnet for wealthy tech executives.However, tech industry donations to political candidates tend to be biased toward Democrats.
Harris has long been known for providing tech support to Democrats, and when she ran for California attorney general, she received campaign support from wealthy Bay Area figures such as Laurene Powell Jobs. She has also spoken on the Google campus and reportedly attended the wedding of Facebook billionaire Sean Parker.
