By Athena Papakosta

Joe Biden withdrew from the pre-election race and stopped with a letter to claim his re-election in the presidential elections of the United States scheduled for November 5.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president,” he said in the seven-paragraph letter he released shortly before 9:00 p.m. Sunday and nominated the country’s first female vice president, Kamala Harris, as his replacement.

In his first reaction, the former American president and current Republican candidate, Donald Trump, speaking to CNN reporter Caitlan Collins, after first calling Joe Biden the “worst president in American history” went on to emphasize that Harris will be more easy opponent.

Kamala Harris herself, having already received the support of the Clintons, announced her candidacy stating that “I will do everything to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and the extreme agenda Project 2025” and from being the country’s first female and first black vice-president, she is now claiming to become the first black female president of the country.

Reports indicate that Joe Biden made the decision to step aside in the last 48 hours leading up to the letter announcing his decision while he remained isolated at his home in Delaware suffering from the coronavirus.

It had been preceded by a suffocating pressure from members of the Democratic Party calling for him to retire, with the voices growing louder and louder with each passing hour — after what turned out to be a disastrous appearance on the CNN call-in show in Atlanta.

Even his campaign donors have frozen with some pulling back and Democrats seeing donations in July double from June.

But he, like the head of his pre-election campaign, remained adamant. In fact, Biden declared that he is looking forward to returning to his election campaign, that he will leave only on doctor’s orders or even saying that “only God” can put him out of the race.

However, the polls were becoming increasingly clear with the latest, from IPSOS for US network ABCNews, published early yesterday and conducted a few days earlier, showing that 60% of Democrats thought the US president should to withdraw from the race with 75% saying they were happy with the potential choice of Kamala Harris to replace him.

Kamala and the possibility of her… possible rivals

The next day, however, for the Democrats is, for now, not clear.

Kamala Harris can declare herself “present” having received the support of Biden himself as well as former American President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State of the country, Hillary Clinton, but, for example, the 44th president of the country , Barack Obama, in his long announcement welcoming the Biden decision, did not find a little space to make a reference to the country’s vice president. Neither did Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives.

She is currently running a communications marathon within the Democratic party to get members of the party to support her candidacy. Indicatively until one in the morning, Greek time, and while four hours had passed since the letter, Biden had spoken by phone with 200 legislators.

Analysts say that time is running out and she must remain cautious with the next 48 hours being critical for the future of her candidacy.

At the same time, everyone who is watching developments very closely and wondering if there will be other contenders like Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, or like California Governor Gavin Newsom, or like Illinois Governor Jay Robert Prisker. If they do, and are ultimately nominated at the August 19 Democratic Convention in Chicago, they will have just two months or so to introduce themselves to voters, build their campaign narrative and ultimately win. Donald Trump.

So far, Whitmer has made it clear in a post on Platform X, formerly Twitter, that “my job in this election will remain the same to do everything in my power to defeat the Democrats and stop Donald Trump.” .

Respect and… love to Biden

Legend has it that when George III, King of the United Kingdom, learned that George Washington, the first president of the United States, had decided not to seek another term, he said that he was “the greatest in the world.”

This is how the British The Guardian describes how the Democrats also welcome the Biden decision, characterizing it as selfless, expressing their respect, admiration and also their love for the person of the American president.

And they particularly stand by his words in his letter in which he explains that “it is in the best interest of my party and the country that I retire” and therefore inevitably compare him to the “narcissism”, as they say, of Donald Trump.

“Joe Biden has not only been a great president (…) but he is truly a wonderful person,” said Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“Joe Biden was an extraordinary president who made history – a leader who fought hard for working people and delivered amazing results for the benefit of all Americans. He will go down in history as one of the most effective and selfless presidents,” California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote in a post on the X Network.

“Fever” in the Republican camp

“We have to start over,” Donald Trump said on the Truth Social platform in the early hours of Monday morning as everyone in the Republican Party and in the staff of the former American president know that 183 days before the presidential election, the electoral landscape is completely changing .

They had prepared and built their narrative against Joe Biden and against his administration.

After his decision to leave, their eyes are now on all his potential successors in the pre-election race in order to be prepared for all possible scenarios.

However, they focus particularly on Kamala Harris, and not without reason, since she seems to be the most popular among them, while it also serves the already existing strategy of a frontal attack against the American president and also his term, of which she was a fellow traveler as vice president. Many analysts, however, expect Republicans to describe her as a far-leftist, while it is possible to accuse her of covering up Biden’s mental weaknesses by putting the nation at risk.