By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden as of Saturday night had planned to stay in the 2024 presidential race, but told senior staff on Sunday afternoon that he was withdrawing, a source familiar with the matter said.
“Last night the message was proceed with everything, full speed ahead,” the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. “At around 1:45 p.m. today: the president told his senior team that he had changed his mind.”
The decision caught many White House staff off guard, with several expressing shock that the president had made the announcement while recuperating from a bout of COVID-19 at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Nursing a cough, the 81-year-old Biden had spent the weekend stewing over Democratic pressure to force him to leave the race.
He had been particularly irked at former House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom Biden advisers believed was orchestrating a pressure campaign to get him to stand down.
Hours before the shock announcement, the Biden campaign denied reports that he was planning to drop out.
“It is false. And I think that it is false to continue to try to gin up this narrative,” deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told MSNBC’s “The Weekend” on Sunday morning.
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