Joe Biden Made the Right Choice

In his painful decision to withdraw from the race, the president put his country first.

Illustration by Gabriela Pesqueira / The Atlantic. Source: Anna Moneymaker / Getty.

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It was a very hard thing for President Joe Biden to do, and it was the right thing for him to do.

Biden announced today that he would step aside as the Democratic presidential nominee.

In a letter to the nation, America’s 46th president said, “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.”

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The decision by the 81-year-old Biden was very nearly inevitable, as his chances to defeat Donald Trump collapsed and the odds of a Republican landslide victory increased, but its announcement was nevertheless a stunning moment. In an instant, Democrats were liberated from an issue, Biden’s age, that had hung like a millstone around their necks. This will unleash an enormous amount of energy within the party. What was looking like a rout is now a race.

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