WASHINGTON – With less than four months before the 2024 presidential elections, current president Joe Biden has dropped out of the race.

Biden intends to complete his current term in office and the president has endorsed vice president Kamala Harris democratic nomination. 

The decision was announced a week after an attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump at a political rally in Pennsylvania which left one innocent by-stander dead. During the assassination attempt, Trump was grazed by a bullet on the top of his ear. 

According to Associated Press (AP), a party’s presumptive president nominee has never stepped down from the race so close to the November elections. 

“President Lyndon Johnson, besieged by the Vietnam War, announced in March 1968 that he would not seek another term after just a single state’s primary. Biden’s July decision comes after more than 14 million Democrats cast votes supporting him through the primary process,” AP said. 

“Biden’s decision to bow out came after escalating pressure from his democratic allies to step aside following the June 27 debate, in which the 81-year-old president trailed off, often gave nonsensical answers and failed to call out the former president’s many falsehoods,” AP reports.

Biden announced his decision in a letter which was posted to his social media account on the evening of Sunday, July 21. 

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, 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 for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote in a letter posted Sunday to his X account.