Aides only found out Biden was quitting campaign when they saw statement

One campaign aide told The Independent they had ‘no idea’ the announcement was coming, even as they told reporters the president was staying in the race

After years spent working on his re-election campaign or in his White House, the vast majority of President Joe Biden’s official and campaign staff found out about his historic decision to stand down from the 2024 presidential race the same way most Americans did.

On their phones. From news outlets or by social media.

Biden, the first American president not to accept his party’s nomination for a second term since then-president Lyndon Johnson withdrew from contention ahead of the 1968 election, posted a letter to his “fellow Americans” announcing his decision at 1:46 pm on Sunday, just minutes after he informed senior White House aides in a phone call.

A person familiar with the internal discussions at play told The Independent that Biden opted to post a letter to X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, to avoid the possibility that the news would leak in the run-up to any sort of televised address or statement.

The letter was drafted with the aid of Biden’s longtime adviser and chief strategist Mike Donilon, who reportedly travelled to Biden’s Rehoboth Beach, Delaware vacation home late Saturday at the president’s request, along with another longtime aid, Steve Richetti.

The decision was kept close-hold, with not even Vice President Kamala Harris learning about Biden’s plans until the day of the announcement.

One campaign aide who has been with Biden in one capacity or another since the 2020 race told The Independent they had “no idea” any announcement was in the works, even as they rebuffed reporters’ queries on the subject by telling them Biden was staying in.

Indeed, even in the minutes after the history-making letter was public, the Biden campaign apparatus blasted out a fundraising appeal asking donors to stand with “Joe and Kamala.”

Hours later, the campaign filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission changing its’ official name to “Harris for President.”