Biden aides wept in surprise after learning he was withdrawing from social media

Joe Biden had all but made the decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race on Saturday night, but the vast majority of his staff were not informed until the very last minute, according to reports.

The president announced to the world he was dropping his reelection bid at 1:46 p.m. Sunday, issuing a letter instead of a video statement that could have risked immortalizing him as “sick and hoarse” — lingering symptoms of a COVID-19 crisis, according to The New York Times.

That morning, according to the TimesHe called three people close to him to inform them of what was going to happen: Vice President Kamala Harris, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon.

Top White House and campaign advisers were briefed in a 1:45 p.m. video call hosted by Zients. Biden was still speaking on the call when the letter was posted online, The Washington Post reported.

“Come to me with the work and let’s get it done,” the president said on the call after reading the letter to his staff and thanking them for their work, according to the statement. Times.

Zients then arranged two more calls, one with other White House officials and one with Biden’s cabinet, to confirm that the letter they were seeing on social media was real.

Some staff were in tears, Times Their reactions ranged from shock to relief.

“There is still so much to do – and as President Biden says, ‘there is nothing America can’t do – when we do it together,’” Zients wrote in a message to the entire White House team at 2:26 p.m., according to the American news site. Job.

Some Biden aides have expressed pain and frustration at being kept in the dark. Several told the Job that they had been told on Friday and Saturday to continue working, implying that the campaign was still alive and kicking.

A delegate, Nick Koenig, told the Times that a member of Biden’s campaign team had called him at 1:12 p.m. Sunday, asking if the president could still count on his support. reported I received a fundraising email from the Biden campaign at 1:38 p.m., eight minutes before the letter was published.

“It’s just crazy,” Koenig said.

“I don’t think a single soul in Delaware knows that,” one state official told Politico.

In fact, as Biden isolated over the weekend at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, he was accompanied by a small group of family members and trusted advisers, including top aides Steve Ricchetti and Mike Donilon. The gathering was punctuated by “very concerning” discussions about his poll numbers, which have plummeted after his dismal performance in last month’s debate.

It was Ricchetti and Donilon who, at an acceptable social distance from the ailing president, helped him draft the letter Saturday evening, according to the Times.

A virtual call where Biden would have been formally chosen as the party’s nominee was scheduled to take place early next month, just under two weeks before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The exact date of the appeal has not yet been set and it was not immediately clear Sunday whether it would take place.