the for reelection saying it is in the best interest of my party and the country. it comes four months before americans go to the polls of course, upending the race for the white house, and it follows weeks of intense pressure from fellow democrats after a faltering debate performance on, against the republican donald trump, on tv, at the end ofjune. following the announcement on sunday evening, president biden gave his endorsement in the presidential race to vice president kamala harris. in a letter posted to his social media account, he said it had been the greatest honour of his life to serve as president. it says... my fellow americans, over the past three years, we've made great progress as a nation. today, america has the strongest economy in the world. we've made historic investments and rebuilding our nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in

expanding affordable health care to to a record number of americans. we provide a critical care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances. we've passed the first gun safety law in 30 years, appointed the first african—american woman to the supreme court, and passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world. america has never been better positioned to lead than we are today. i know none of this could have been done without you, the american people, and together, we overcame a once in a sensory pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the great depression. —— once in a century. we have protected and preserved our democracy and revitalised and strengthened our alliances around the world. 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 interests of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term. i will

speak to the nation later this week in more detail about my decision. for now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me re—elected. i want to thank vice president kamala harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the american people for the faith and trust you have placed on me. i believe today what i always have: that there is nothing america can't do when we do it together. wejust america can't do when we do it together. we just have to remember we are the united states of america. and it is signed, joe biden. let's speak to our correspondent nomia iqbal in washington. well, a culmination of a growing amount of pressure on mr biden not to continue in the race? it has been growing for weeks, martin. it happened right after that presidential debate. it is quite

ironic, because usually presidential debates don't usually move the needle. that is something we usually say when we are reporting from those debates, that they don't often make a big difference. 0ften voters know who they will vote for. that is probably true for trump and biden, but that debate really changed everything forjoe biden, for a lot of democrats. they felt this was the first time they had seen mr biden really perform, and were worried about his health, his age, his fragility, and so the pressure grew on him from that moment. but then, there was the attempted assassination of donald trump a week ago, and it looks like this rebellion, i guess you could say, in the democratic party, had come to some sort of standstill, and in some ways, perhaps that had re—energised the support for president biden. but actually, it was the reverse, and i saw that. i was at the republican national convention. i just saw that. i was at the republican national convention. ijust came national convention. i just came from national convention. ijust came

from there a few days ago, where donald trump was efficiently nominated as the party's presidential candidate, —— officially nominated. and i didn't find one candidate who didn't say that they didn't want mr trump to face mr biden, because they had this not unfounded confidence that donald trump could beat mr biden, and so then that pressure started coming back again, there were more democrats coming out expressing their concern over president biden's health, and so it has become almost like this clock ticking. it wasn't a case of, is he going to stand down? i think it was a case of when. there were some rumours it could have happened this weekend. he is at home in delaware at the moment, a couple of hours away from dc. would he announce it may be in a weak�*s time? when would he do it? though we knew that if it was going to happen, it would be at some point before the democratic party's national convention, which is due to take

place in august, and that is when the nominee is officially confirmed. but today, joe biden has put all that speculation... there are some who are very angry thatjoe biden is stepping down, it is worth pointing out, a lot of democrat voters who still believe in him. they will view this as some sort of bullying by the media, but he has officially, as we have been reporting, confirmed that he is going to stand down. it's a seismic, historic moment in america. we have already had the speaker of the house, mikejohnson, say that if he is not fit to run for president, he is not fit to run for president, he is not fit to remain as president. they are calling for him to resign straightaway. and donald trump was very quick to issue a statement as well aboutjoe biden's unfitness to serve? it is funny, because earlier, i think only yesterday, mikejohnson said it would be illegalfor

president biden to stand down, because there are many people in the primaries who had already cast their ballot forjoe biden, so now there is an issue of, you know, what happens they are legally? and donald trump had basically wanted joe biden to continue running, and i think that the view in the republican party, certainlyjudging from what i had observed at the convention, is that they wanted him to stay in the race, because they believed he was beatable, based on all the poles we have seen coming out since the debate, where donald trump has been leading by quite some percentage in battleground states. in fact, there was a poll out today from michigan, a key battleground state thatjoe biden would need to win in november, which suggests that donald trump is ahead by seven points. so, yes, they had a different view on it yesterday, but now, they have come out to criticise him, and i have got

donald trump's response here on his truth social website, in which he says: crooked joe biden was not fit to run for president, certainly not fit to serve. we will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly. it will be very interesting to know how the republican party is genuinely there were generally feeling, because with biden, they felt, he is a known quantity, he is beatable. but now, kamala harris, ithink quantity, he is beatable. but now, kamala harris, i think donald trump is already getting his attacks ready on her. he has already been trying them out at his rallies. they are already planning their ads. but whoever stepped in in the end to take over from joe biden will be a wild card for the republican party, and so, as the weeks go on, as we continue to cover this story, we will probably get more of a sense of how the party is feeling about this. nomia, for the moment, thank you very much. nomia iqbal in washington. we will speak what our correspondent tos

throughout the coming hours as this story unfolds. —— we will speak more to our correspondents. nomia spoke about a statement donald trump had put out, and that is what you can see on your screen now. he is saying: crooked joe biden was not fit to run for president and is certainly not fit to serve and never was. he only attained the position of president by lies, fake news and not leaving his basement. all those around him, including his doctorand the media knew he wasn't capable of being president, and he wasn't, now what he has done to our country. with millions of people coming across our border, totally unchecked and unfettered, prisons, mental institutions in record numbers of terrorists. we will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly. make america great again.

let's speak to daniella ballou—ares, ceo of leadership now, a democrat—supporting rights group. thanks forjoining us at short notice democracy organisation of business and thought leaders committed to business and thought leaders committed t— business and thought leaders committedt , ., . committed to protecting democracy, and auoin committed to protecting democracy, and going into _ committed to protecting democracy, and going into this, _ committed to protecting democracy, and going into this, our— committed to protecting democracy, and going into this, our greatest - and going into this, our greatest risk was that the former president trump could be the president again and pose a serious risks to american democracy, and so we really are just so thankfulfor democracy, and so we really are just so thankful for president biden making this decision, this historic decision, to pass the torch to the next generation of leaders, and really do his part to shore up american democracy, and we think it's an act of selfless leadership that we'd like to see from all our leaders. so i don't really have a comment on the timing other than to say that the timing other than to say that the time is now for this country to

come around a new leader, whoever the democrats select cover and protect our system and reenergise american politics. you say you are concerned for democracy, but how then do you answer away the 14 million votes that president biden has won in the primaries, which i suppose the party will then say, we will hand is ever to have a device there were presidential candidate is, which i suppose will be the vice president kamala harris. how is it democratic that those votes are gifted to someone who didn't win them? ultimately, the nominee is always selected at the convention, and that will happen this time. there will be a new nominee selected at the convention, and of course, there was a primary, because the president decided to run again for a second

term, they were very few democrats who entered the primary, so you didn't really have a competitive primary, because they deferred to the current president, which is very normal to do. but i would not characterise the primary as, this primary is reflective of the full preferences of the american people, and of course, as the months passed, and of course, as the months passed, and as we saw in the debate, unfortunately, president biden's ability to make the case for american democracy, his health became a concern, and so when you look at the polling of americans, 70% of americans as of a couple of weeks ago said they would like to see a new nominee. so i think this is actually a reflection of the strength of american democracy, the american public weighed in, many groups who are concerned with our system, many actors in the democratic party weighed in, and i think the president really considered all of those inputs are making this decision, so i think it's a great moment for our system.

thank you very much for talking to us. thanks for having me. let's speak to white house reporter at politico daniel lippman. daniel, we spoke not long ago about the likelihood of president biden continuing in this race. what do you believe it happened overnight to change his mind? i think you basicallyjust saw change his mind? i think you basically just saw the writing on the war, that the money had dried up, and money are so important in american politics these days. —— he saw the writing on the wall. his own campaign co—chair, jeffrey katzenberg, a big hollywood figure in charge of getting all the money, told biden on wednesday that they were having major money issues, and biden did not have the support of the democratic party. you had chuck schumer, nancy pelosi, kim jefferies, the house democratic leader, telljoe biden or indicate that he was no longer welcome at the top of the ticket and it would lead top of the ticket and it would lead

to historic losses up and down the ballot. —— hakimjeffries. so they would lose and have major problems winning the house and senate, and so he did not want his legacy to be that he had the party revolt in the summer and hejust that he had the party revolt in the summer and he just stayed that he had the party revolt in the summer and hejust stayed on tracking and lead to donald trump coming back into office, because he was so proud that he defeated trump in 2020 and had saved democracy, in democrats' eyes, that he did not want to have trump be the reason —— he did not want to be the reason trump came back in november. haw he did not want to be the reason trump came back in november. how do democrats get — trump came back in november. how do democrats get back _ trump came back in november. how do democrats get back on _ trump came back in november. how do democrats get back on the _ trump came back in november. how do democrats get back on the front - democrats get back on the front foot? resort at the republican convention, donald trump's rivals who stood against him for the nomination, saying, we are backing him. they look like a party that is united. that's not how the democrats will look to a lot of people. not right now, of course, because it is an open convention right now, kamala harris has to earn the

party's support, but now she hasjoe biden backing her, and there will be no questions about her mental competency, about her age. she is turning 60 soon, around age 60, and so she is much younger, almost two decades younger than donald trump, and so she can throw the age argument back on him and say he is the one who is too old, too mentally incompetent, and so i think that she is going to be able to get more black voters to the polls for the democrats, asian americans, which is indian—american as well, and i think she has a much better chance of beating donald trump thanjoe biden, because right now, she can turn the focus back to trump and what he would do in office, and ifjoe biden stayed in the race, it would just be his age 24/7 until november. who are the names you are hearing in

the frame as a potential running mate for kamala harris? we are hearing people likejosh shapiro, the governor of pennsylvania, andy bashir, the governor of kentucky. 0ne pennsylvania, andy bashir, the governor of kentucky. one thing about pennsylvania, and shapiro, it is a top state for democrats. they need to win that. they are behind a few points. it is a swing state, a rust belt state. we are also hearing a guy called roy cooper, the governor of north carolina, and so it would probably be, in crass political terms, a white male governor, because i think the party would think it would be too much change all at once if they had two diverse candidates as both president and vice president, so they are trying to appeal to a broad section of america and find the right balance between, do you pick geography, do you pick someone who you think is the future of the

democratic party, someone with a lot of big donors behind them? but that will all get sorted out, and we are seeing a lot of statements from people who are praising joe biden's service, but some of them also endorsing harris as they look to their future endorsing harris as they look to theirfuture in endorsing harris as they look to their future in the endorsing harris as they look to theirfuture in the democratic endorsing harris as they look to their future in the democratic party as well. daniel, we appreciate you talking to us on a very busy night for you, afternoon. thank you very much. white house reporter daniel lippmann at politico. well, we have heard, there has been a lot of pressure mounting onjoe biden in recent weeks after that poor performance against donald trump in a televised debate injune, and also getting names wrong, when he called president zelensky "president putin" at the nato summit, and also calling kamala harris "vice president trump". let's look back on how we got here.

sarah smith looks at the background. when i ran for president four years ago, i said we're in a battle for the soul of america, and we still are. joe biden's age was already a huge concern even before he launched his campaign for re—election. let's finish thisjob. i know we can. but his team shrugged it off. donald trump lost two debates to me in 2020, and since then he hadn't shown up for debate. now he's acting like he wants to debate me again. well, make my day, pal. i'll even do it twice. he confidently challenged donald trump to a debate, thinking it would boost his support. it was a total disaster that set off panic inside his party. the... with the covid...excuse me, with, um, dealing with everything we have to do with, uh... look, if we finally beat medicare. he tried to jog into a rally the next day, but soon gave up. a stronger performance here wasn't enough to reassure voters

that he's up to the job. i give you my word as a biden, i would not be running again if i didn't believe with all my heart and soul, i can do thisjob because, quite frankly... cheering ..the stakes are too high. because of the high stakes, every stumble — like falling over a sandbag on stage lastjune — caused alarm. despite the slips... ..and the spills... ..the biden campaign dismissed as bed—wetters anyone who said concerns about his fitness could lose him the election. he hoped the old gag could kill the problem. he hoped the odd gag could kill the problem. the 2024 election is in full swing, and yes, age is an issue. i'm a grown man running against a six—year—old. a vigorous performance in his state of the union address injanuary

silenced the critics within his own party for a while. here's a simple truth. you can't love your country only when you win. but republicans seized on and shared every moment, like standing frozen among dancing people, looking lost and confused while meeting other world leaders, or having to be led off stage by barack 0bama at a party fundraiser. under extreme pressure, the president knew he couldn't afford any more mistakes. as he then said this at a nato summit. and now i want to hand it over to the president of ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. ladies and gentlemen, president putin. take a look at what happened... when donald trump was almost killed by an assassin's bullet. by an assassin's bullet,

there was a chance he would command so much attention, people would forget aboutjoe biden. but as mr trump got up and defiantly carried on, there was a striking contrast with a covid—struck mr biden pausing his campaign and making his weary way home. the president's fate was sealed when he stepped onto this stage. it was him who'd called for an early debate to try to reset the race. yet his performance forced him to exit the election. sarah smith, bbc news, washington. a great number of tributes being paid to the presidency ofjoe biden in the latest is a statement from president bill clinton and secretary of state hillary clinton. they have issued this on their x feed. it says: president biden has capped his extraordinary career of service with the presidency that has lifted america out a pandemic,

rebuilt our democracy. it goes racing he has found his chance to build a more perfect union. they thank him along with millions of americans for what he has accomplished. they say they are honoured to join the president and endorsing vice president kamala harris and will do whatever we can to support her. they finish by saying: we have lived through many ups and downs, but nothing has made us more worried for our country than the threat posed by f second trump term. he has promised to be a dictator on day one, and the recent ruling by his servile supreme court will only embolden him further to shred the constitution. the end by saying, now is the time to support kamala harris and fight with everything we've got to elect her. america's future depends upon it. let's speak to our correspondent jenny kumah, who is in michigan, where donald trump was speaking last night. as we would have expected, he took every opportunity to criticise joe biden every opportunity to criticisejoe biden and every opportunity to criticise joe biden and say that he is not fit for

office? yes, this was becoming hugely damaging for the democrats, and within minutes of his speech, donald trump was taking advantage of the situation. he hasn't actually said a huge amount about the kind of crisis within the democrats. i guess he probably felt he didn't need to. but yesterday in his speech, there were several moments. he described the democrats as the enemies of democracy and suggested that they were hypocrites to say that he was a threat to democracy when they, he said, were ignoring the votes of 14 million people who had selected joe biden as the presidential candidates through primary some and he said that quite striking line last week he took a bullet for democracy, referring back to the shooting, the attempted assassination attempt last week. he also took a moment to play the crowd. he told the crowd, asking them who they would prefer to stand

against him in the election, joe biden or kamala harris, and the crowd chose joe biden or kamala harris, and the crowd chosejoe biden. he nodded his approval, and it's clear he felt thatjoe biden would have been the weaker candidate to take on, although their strategy is already looking at how they can attack kamala harris, probably looking at the fact she has been part of this government and will be criticising her on the situation with migration. yesterday, this area was full of trump supporters. the arena itself has a capacity of 12,000 people. it is very quiet today, but i managed to speak to a couple of people and get their reaction. 0ne to speak to a couple of people and get their reaction. one was a trump supporter, and he thinks that the situation now is disastrous for the democrats. he thinks that the

tickets of the former president trump andjd tickets of the former president trump and jd vance will be a very kind of strong one. we have also heard from the democrat governor of michigan, gretchen whitmer, and she has said thatjoe biden is a great public servant who knows better than anyone what it takes to defeat donald trump, but she says now that herjob donald trump, but she says now that her job will donald trump, but she says now that herjob will remain staying doing everything she can to elect the democrats and stop donald trump, a convicted felon. so governor whitmer was one of the names that was highlighted as someone who potentially could step in, but it seems that she is accepting the endorsement of kamala harris byjoe biden. talk to us about the reaction you are hearing from donald trump's supporters there in michigan. perhaps some of them who were watching or even present at his

appearance last night? i have spoken in the last 15 minutes orso i have spoken in the last 15 minutes or so since i got here to one person who wanted to get to the venue last night but had a wedding, so he could not, and he was around, but he was saying he felt the combination of donald trump and jd vance was more appealing, and that actually, kamala harris would not be as appealing a candidate. we did speak to someone who said they voted democrat, and actually, for a lot of people, we were announcing the news to them. they hadn't actually realised what was going on. one person we spoke to was going on. one person we spoke to was quite surprised but also said she now didn't know what she was going to do in terms of voting in november. so we are in an extraordinary historic situation where we have just a few weeks to 90, where we have just a few weeks to go, and this huge change, and a lot of uncertainty for the democrats.

for the moment, thank you very much, jenny kumah in michigan, where donald trump appeared last night. let's just share a tweet from nancy pelosi, the former democrat house speaker. she is saying, presidentjoe biden is a patriot american who has i was put our country first. his legacy of vision, values and leadership making one of the most consequential presidents in american history that with and gratitude to president biden for always believing in the promise of america and giving people the opportunity to reach their fulfilment. god bless —— god bless america withjoe biden's greatness and goodness. nancy pelosi writing on social media. however, she had been one of those calling on president biden to step down and leave the race to someone else. let's speak to our correspondence nomia iqbal in washington, and the democrats framing this as an opportunity to thank him for his

legacy while looking forward to finding a replacement? that's right, and the tributes have been coming in thick and fast, by the democratic party. it was interesting red out there, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house. she had expressed concerns privately about president biden, and i think there was a belief that that is when it really turned. nancy pelosi is one of the most influential members of the democratic party. she is also very, very close to president biden, and while she was not calling for him to stand down, she was not endorsing him either, and there was a sense that once pelosi has spoken, that that is when things change. joe biden said in that interview, if you remember, after the debate, that the only thing that would get him to stand down is if the lord almighty told him to, and there were lots of comments in dc amongstjournalists saying, well, nancy pelosi is

probably as close as you can get to the lord almighty, and so there will be lots of questions asked about just how much pressure pelosi put on president biden, or how that conversation went. i just want to read you as well, martin, the statement by mitch mcconnell, the us senate republican leader, and he has gone on to say, he starts the statement by talking about americans facing historic inflation at home, cares at the border, weak leadership in the world stage, criticising joe biden, but he goes on to say, the democratic party has been busy in recent weeks trying to upend the expressed will of the american people in primary elections across the country, and so this is something you will see from a lot of republicans as well. they will make the point of the primaries have been held, that people voted for president biden, and so this is going against the will of many democratic party voters, those who

voted forjoe biden. he has endorsed kamala harris, and it's interesting to see all the big guns that could potentially challenge her. gavin newsom, catching whitmer, josh shapiro. none have come forward to do so, and if they did, there would be this open convention, the democratic national convention in august, and the democrats have already said that would be chaotic, even though conventions are a quite normal way of selecting candidates in the past. so up until now, kamala harris seems to be the person that will be the presidential candidate for the democratic party unless someone in the party comes forward to challenge her. nomia, there could be, though, according to some reports, legal challenges by the republicans? they say there may be states where they can mount a challenge because the primaries took place withjoe biden in place getting 14 million votes? this could become located? —— this

could be complicated? it could be. you will get those republicans who will challenge that and say, ok, make that point that american people have been disenfranchised, that americans have now had their vote taken away from them. it's a powerful argument to make, and many americans will feel like that, but you're also getting members of the republican who are relishing this opportunity to go after whoever replaces joe relishing this opportunity to go after whoever replacesjoe biden. donald trump after whoever replacesjoe biden. donald trumer after whoever replacesjoe biden. donald trump jr tweeted after whoever replacesjoe biden. donald trumer tweeted a moment ago, already, the attacks are starting on kamala harris, painting her as this radical leftist, and so you will get the difference of opinion within the party over what should happen next. i spoke earlier to you at the republican national convention in milwaukee earlier this week, which i was covering for the bbc. i didn't find one republican that wanted joe biden to stand down. there was an inference that they

believed that this is the man that