How did Biden make the decision to leave the race for president?

In the end, President Joe Biden emerged isolated from the political scene.

After weeks of fighting for his political life — insisting he was going nowhere after a disastrous debate — the president's face did not come in an Oval Office speech or a speech on the campaign trail. Instead, it came down to the letter posted on social media while he recovered from Covid-19 at his beach home in Delaware.

It was an easy way to unveil one of the most historic decisions in modern American politics, but time was not on Biden's side to make a decision or make an announcement. Never before has a president dropped out of the re-election race so close to Election Day — and for 24 days it looked like he was stubbornly planning to ride out the storm that followed the June 27 CNN debate in Atlanta.

He spent three weeks after the debate reiterating that he was staying in the race against former President Donald Trump. The president insisted he could beat Trump. His inner circle shrank to his closest aides and family.  

But in the end, the pressure on Biden from party leaders, lawmakers and donors — and polls showing the perilous and potentially insurmountable path Biden faced amid a growing deficit with Trump — ultimately proved too much. Described as more isolated than ever, Biden couldn't resist prodding behind the scenes and in public. The stark reality became a chorus of voices calling for the president to drop out of the race, like a stone rolling down a mountain that gained momentum with each passing day.

The president's team wanted the June CNN debate with Trump — months earlier than typical presidential debates — to shake up a race that Biden was sweeping. They succeeded, but not in the way they thought.

Instead, the Biden campaign fell apart over the next 24 days. Everything the president and his team tried to do to assuage Democrats' fears simply failed to dispel the perception that Biden was too advanced in age, and too frail in health, to remain in the race.

In two tweets on Sunday afternoon, Biden withdrew from the race and threw his support behind his running mate, Kamala Harris, in hopes of quickly unifying their party and moving past the chaos that has engulfed Democrats since the debate.

How the decision was made
Biden's final decision to drop out of the race was reached in the last 48 hours, a senior campaign adviser said, as he consulted with family and key advisers by phone while recovering from Covid. A source familiar with the matter said plans to exit the race began on Saturday evening and were finalized on Sunday.

The adviser said the president was studying the data coming in and was convinced it would "weigh" the ticket and be a challenge to defeat Trump.

Biden's decision had nothing to do with any medical issues, a senior White House official told CNN.

When Biden huddled with his two closest advisers on Saturday, the information they provided about the election and where top Democratic officials stood underscored that the path to victory was "essentially non-existent," according to another person familiar with the matter.

There wasn't a single poll number, swing Democratic official or fundraiser presented in the meeting with longtime aides Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti that pushed Biden toward his decision, the source said.

Instead, the briefing emphasized that the path back to a solid campaign had been severely damaged by declining national poll numbers and swing polls, along with party defections that were likely to accelerate. The information included surveys and details gathered from contacts outside of Biden's inner circle. CNN