Biden drops out of 2024 presidential race

I'm going to move now uh to ABC Selena Wang who is um traveling with President Biden and rovi Delaware Selena tell us what you're more you're learning and how this all came together I'm I'm hearing you may have word from Ron Clan yeah Rachel I mean you can only imagine how all of this is playing out for President Biden he had to get off the campaign Trail he is isolated here in covid he had been trying before that point to do everything he could to prove to the American people to prove to these Democratic lawmakers in Congress that he has the stand to stay in this race then all of that came to a halt and right when that came to a halt you had mounting concerns you had mounting data showing that things were not moving in the right direction now President Biden is a stubborn person I've spoken to many of his AIDS who say that for any regular decision he wants a lot of data he wants a lot of information so you can only imagine how much thinking and rumination it took for him to get to this point and I want to read something that's very telling this is a tweet from Ron Cay he's a former white house chief of staff he's also a close Biden adviser and this gives you a window into the thinking of his inner circle quote now that the donors and electeds have pushed out the only candidate who has ever beaten Trump it's time to end the political Fantasy games and unite behind the only veteran of a national campaign our outstanding VP KLA Harris let's get real and win in November now what I really want to point out there is the quote pushed out and that is something that sentiment is something I've been hearing from a lot of my sources in recent days which is they feel this is a coordinated camp campaign from donors the Democratic Elite who believe that President Biden does not have what it takes but as of last night top campaign officials were telling me they still believe there was a path forward because they thought there was a divide between what the Democratic Elite believe what this donor class believed and what they felt people on the ground believed but of course that data that polling only mounting so President Biden obviously came to this decision after seeing a lot of data but I do want to point out one more thing which is how this is going to resonate with voters I've been talking to a lot of them in Battleground States as I've been traveling with the president and for some of them who have turned away from President Biden because of some of their policies they tell me that a Harris at the top of the ticket wouldn't change their mind because they see them as part of the same Administration in particular that is their view when it comes to those who are frustrated over the president's policy towards Israel and the war in Gaza they hold Harris to the exact same account as President Biden Selena thank you I want to go back to our Chief Washington correspondent John Carl and John we were doing some reporting earlier today and I was told by sources in the Trump campaign that they were preparing for all sorts of scenarios including for a scenario that President Biden would step aside that next step would be vice president KLA Harris and they were already starting to build these opposition research books about who her potential running mate could be do we have any idea at this point there are definitely a lot of Democrats with presidential Ambitions on who could possibly be on that short list as you can imagine and Rachel uh I've been talking for I mean now a couple of weeks about uh you know to Democrats about this very scenario including uh you know who would likely be KLA Harris's running mate and and a few names uh came up over and over again um one name I I would put right near the top of the list uh to write down is Roy Cooper he is the Democratic governor of North Carolina um he is um a Democrat who has managed to win get elected in a state uh that is a Battleground state that leans Republican and a state that Democrats think they have a real chance of winning this year they did not win last time um they did not win the last two times they they you know North Carolina's been pretty reliably uh uh Republican in presidential races but they believe they came within within just over a percent of winning it last time they think that they have a chance this time so Roy Cooper is a name I would put right near the top of your list another uh Democratic governor Andy Basher of Kentucky but once again a moderate uh a Democrat who has managed to win in a state uh that that is in in the case of Kentucky really dominated uh by Republicans Josh sairo uh the the governor of Pennsylvania I would put high on that list and um some of the names you you've seen as as potential replacements for Biden would now uh uh fit into this category as well I I you know Gretchen Whitmer uh Wes Moore of of governor of um uh of of of Maryland uh these are these are some of the names that that have been circulating and I think will all uh be seriously considered uh by klis say she makes in very short order we'll need to make a decision about her running mate yeah and John let's just talk about the timing here because this is not a decision that she's going to have uh weeks or months potentially to make she's going to have to make this decision fairly quickly because we are so close to the election and so close to the convention yeah and you know the convention is in the middle of August the Democrats uh have have established a a virtual roll call now they can always change this but they were to uh solidify formalize their nominees uh on on August 1 uh but remember Rachel you you you know this because you've tracked this before you know in the last cycle the the the process of picking a vice president isn't just ha who should I pick that's a good person it's an intensive vetting uh there are you know potential running mates uh go go through the ringer as as you know law law firm is hired uh they they go and they basically investigate themselves uh to find out what could be used if there's anything in a in a potential running mat's background uh that could come out over the course of campaign uh that that could be detrimental so there's very little time to do vetting here um and and you know there's very little time to decide anyway but but to do the decision plus the vetting uh KL Harris has to be thinking about this right now and my hunch is even though she didn't get that call from President Biden until just a short while ago that he was opting out of the race my hunch is she's already been thinking about this John Carl thank you I want to go back to our ABC's Martha Ritz Martha you have known President Biden for a very long time you did that debate with him back in 2012 there's been so many Democrats that have come out and said that he is not essentially the same person we even heard from a congressman Seth Molton who said that President Biden did even recognized him when he saw him just a few weeks ago