By Paul Ejime
It is not entirely surprising, yet the implications can be far-reaching.
Beyond the potential for an unprecedented first female president in America, Uncle Sam’s Land of Liberty, facing the toughest threat yet to its superpower supremacy, could be in for an inflammable Donald Trump’s second term at the White House.
Whichever way the pendulum swings, the November crucial presidential vote could further complicate the political uncertainties in a divided America and a World dogged by several avoidable wars that threaten human existence.
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr, (Joe Biden), America’s 46th President from 2021, after serving as 47th Vice President from 2009-2017 and Senator from 1973-2009, has finally quit the race for the 47th US presidency.
His announcement in a written statement on Sunday that he would not seek re-election adds to the breathtaking developments in a campaign season and America’s political history coming just one week after the attempted assassination of former Donald Trump, Biden’s political arch-rival.
The unusual events from June 2024, compare in reckoning with the November 1963 assassination of President J.F. Kennedy, the brutal murder in April 1968 of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, America’s Black human rights icon, and the Watergate scandal that ended President Richard Nixon’s presidency in 1974.
American politics went into panic overdrive in the past four weeks, with political cats released among the pigeons, while the hawks were unrestrained from the chickens after Biden put up a catastrophic performance during a June 27 presidential debate against Trump, who has derogatory labels for his opponents such as “sleepy Joe” for Biden.
At 81, Biden’s health and fitness for re-election had been under severe scrutiny.
Despite his insistence to remain in the race, his failing health and recent embarrassing gaffes such as confusing Vice President Kamala Harris with Donald Trump, referring to Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zelensky as President Truth or awkwardly calling his defence secretary ‘that black man’ when he forgot his name, were most damaging to a politician who once stamped the American campaign turf with admiration and political gusto.
Announcing his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential run, Biden endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris to succeed him as the Democratic presidential candidate, adding to the drama of a divisive race, following the 2020 contest.
In 2020, Biden defeated Trump, making the latter a one-term president with several firsts, including being the only American president to be impeached twice, and later the first former American president to be convicted of a felony.
Trump is still facing multiple trials over alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and for inciting his supporters to invade Congress, attempting to scuttle American democracy. Biden, currently in isolation after contracting COVID, said it was the “greatest honour” to serve as president, adding that he was withdrawing “in the best interest of my party and the country.”
“And let me express my heartfelt appreciation for the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me,” he said in the statement, adding: “I believe today and always… that there is nothing America can’t do – when we do it together. We …have to remember we are the United States of America,” he affirmed.
Trump, whose campaign slogan remains “Let’s make America great again,” was among the first to react to Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race.
“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President and is certainly not fit to serve – And never was,” said Trump on social media platforms.
Democratic party bigwigs, who had expressed concern over Biden’s faltering campaign, including former President Barack Obama, Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have praised Biden’s decision and his presidency.
Vice President Harris is the likely successor to Biden, but she must first win the Democratic party’s Convention in four weeks.
Some candidates for that contest have already endorsed her, with Democrats also reporting a dramatic increase in donations for the campaign, however, as Americans would say, “It is not a slam dunk issue,” twenty-four hours is a lifetime in politics.
At 59, she can claim the momentum and an advantage over several other potential Democratic candidates, being part of the 2020 successful presidential ticket with Biden, with years of goodwill among cross sections of the party and access to campaign funds raised for Biden’s re-election effort.
Harris said she was “honoured” to have Biden’s endorsement and pledged to “earn and win this nomination” to unite America against Republican candidate Trump. “We have 107 days until election day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win,” she affirmed.
However, the huddles on her road to the White House are enormous including whether America is prepared for a woman president of colour against the backdrop of Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful attempt against Trump in 2016. Her first litmus test is on 19 August, when the Democrats elect their presidential nominee at their party’s National Convention.
Meanwhile, former president Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in 2016, have endorsed Harris, saying they backed her as a candidate and would “fight with everything we’ve got to elect her.”
Key issues that could define the outcome of the 2024 elections in America include immigration, especially border control, abortion, taxes and health care, judges and the Supreme Court, foreign relations, particularly the Israel-Hamas war, America’s role in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) underpinned by the Russia-Ukraine war and foreign trade.
Latest opinion polls give Trump a marginal lead of 5% over Biden and 3% over Harris, still, the situation can change drastically now that Biden has dropped out of the race with Harris in the driving seat.
Trump has already boasted that Harris “will be easy to beat.” However, the jury will remain out on the eventual outcome until after the November vote.
It has not been smooth sailing for the 78-year-old wealthy former TV Reality Show host, who thrives in conspiracy theories and had more than 50 legal petitions claiming that he won the 2020 elections, all dismissed by courts.
Trump is still in the presidential race despite his conviction for a felony, awaiting sentencing in September for falsifying business records to conceal payments to a pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels.
Part of the ongoing wild political development in America is that Trump survived an assassination attempt on his life at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, and suddenly former anti-Trumpers and sceptics in the GOP, which he dominates are flooding to his side.
James David (JD) Vance, the Ohio Senator and Marine Veteran, who once described Trump as a “narcissist” and a “fraud” with “dangerous” and “divisive” policies, has miraculously changed his mind to become Trump’s vice-presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, American security agencies are still investigating the shameful security breach that allowed 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks access to the venue of the GOP rally where he fired at least eight rounds of bullets, which narrowly missed Trump but grazed his right ear. In solidarity, some Trump supporters now carry improvised ear bandages.
These and more, encapsulate the uncertainty, fear and potential implications of another Trump presidency not only on domestic policies in a divided America but on the world at large, with the raging conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war. Unless he resigns, Biden could still be in charge as a lame-duck president until January 2025.
But the big questions are what happens to Washington’s current affinity with Israel and NATO’s support to Ukraine in the war against Russia under a Harris or another Trump presidency, or whoever runs against Trump from the Democratic party in the November election? And will Trump still consider Haiti and African nations as “shithole” countries, in his second coming?
- Paul Ejime is an author, global affairs analyst, and consultant on Peace & Security and Governance Communications.
