Inside Biden’s unprecedented exit from the presidential race

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware CNN — In the end, President Joe Biden exited the political stage in isolation.

After weeks of fighting for his political life – insisting he wasn’t going anywhere following a disastrous debate performance – the president’s about-face did not come in an Oval Office address or a speech on the campaign trail. Instead, it came in letter posted to social media as he recovered from Covid-19 at his beach house in Delaware.

It was a low-key way to reveal one of the most historic decisions in modern American politics, but time was not on Biden’s side to reach a decision or make an announcement. Never before has a president left a reelection race this close to Election Day – and for 24 days it seemed as if he were stubbornly planning to ride out the storm that followed the June 27 CNN debate in Atlanta.

He spent the three weeks after the debate repeating that he was staying in the race against former President Donald Trump. The president dug in. He insisted he could beat Trump. His inner circle shrank to his closest aides and family. He was forced to retreat to Delaware, where he reached a decision in the last day and a half, finally conceding that a man loyal to the Democratic Party for more than half a century was seen as a drag on the ticket.