MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow lauded President Joe Biden’s decision to bow out of the presidential race on Sunday, saying there was no “greater or more consequential act of service and sacrifice to this country.”
Maddow, joining anchor Katy Tur after a run “nowhere near civilization,” noted that Biden’s sudden Sunday decision didn’t compute with his trajectory as a politician.
Biden announced on Sunday that he would end his re-election campaign, saying it was “in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling the duties as president for the remainder of my term.”
He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor in a follow-up post.
“It’s time to come together and beat Trump,” he wrote. “Let’s do this.”
“This is the opposite of something that is natural or easy for him,” Maddow noted. “He is just not built to do something like this, because his superpower is being underestimated, and that’s why he’s been so resolute and resisting all these calls for him to drop out.”
Biden had repeatedly resisted calls from Democrats to step aside, ruling out “completely” the idea of dropping out earlier this month. It followed years of stubbornness by the career politician, who relied on his underdog status to win the Democratic nomination in 2020 and later the general election.
But because Biden ultimately succumbed to calls from his party leaders to step aside, Democrats may have the best shot at beating Donald Trump, she said.
“Him making this decision today is to give the country a chance, a reasonable chance, at not putting Donald Trump back in the White House,” Maddow said. “Not putting a president back in the White House who refused to leave the last time and summoned an angry mob to try to overthrow the government.”
