Following weeks of increasing pressure from Democrats, President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he will drop out of the 2024 presidential race and not seek reelection. He will finish out his term, however.
“While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote in a letter posted to Twitter (aka X).
Biden said he will “speak to the nation” later this week about the move. He thanked his Vice President Kamala Harris in the letter, and then in a separate tweet, endorsed her as the Democratic nominee for president.
“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” he wrote. “Democrats—it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best… pic.twitter.com/x8DnvuImJV
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
Polymarket, the leading crypto predictions market platform, saw wild swings in odds following the news, with Harris’ chances of securing the Democratic nomination surging to 82%. In a potential election matchup, Trump currently leads on Polymarket with a 64% chance, while Harris currently sits at 31%. Nevertheless, Polymarket’s bettors have Harris pipping Trump in the popular vote, at odds of 43% versus Trump’s 42%.
The news initially saw the Democratic Party’s odds of winning the election plunge on Polymarket, before stablizing at 36%. The Democractic VP nominee market, has positioned Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro as the frontrunner for the position, at odds of 30%.
The price of Bitcoin demonstrated volatility as the news broke, briefly dipping below $66,000 before recovering to $67,000, remaining steady on the day, according to data from CoinGecko.
Editor’s note: This story is breaking and will be updated with additional detail.
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Source: https://decrypt.co/240788/polymarket-goes-wild-biden-drops-out-endorses-kamala
