MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow sang President Joe Biden’s praises for taking himself out of the 2024 race after facing pressure from donors and Democratic Party members.
The political commentator acknowledged that she didn’t think the Democrats could win if Biden stayed on the ticket.
“What a man!” Maddow said shortly after Biden announced his decision to withdraw on Sunday. “What a patriot! What an act of selfless devotion to your country.”
The MSNBC host went on to gush about Biden’s accomplishments as president. She also said his stepping down was an act of “service and sacrifice to this country” because it gave someone else the chance to beat Republican nominee Donald Trump in November.
Rachel Maddow reacts to President Biden withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race.
“What a man. What a patriot. What an act of selfless devotion to your country.” pic.twitter.com/hhEEoNkTbd
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 21, 2024
“Him making this decision today is to give the country a chance,” Maddow continued. “A reasonable chance at not putting Donald Trump back in the White House. Not putting a president back in the White House who refused to leave the last time and summoned an angry mob to try to overthrow the government rather than go. This is Joe Biden saying, ‘Apparently it’s not me, the one that gives us the best chance to do that. It’s got to be somebody else. And so I will step aside.’”
The commentator went on to explain that she believed keeping Biden would have given Democrats no shot of winning, especially considering his disastrous debate performance.
“The Democratic Party was in really bad shape with the concerns about the enfeebled public appearance of the president,” Maddow said.
“And that debate, shook people not only because it was one bad performance, but because it underscored, reified, and validated some niggling concerns that people had had about the president’s age, and his health and his capacity. And it absolutely split the Democratic Party into a million different pieces. And with that status of the Democratic Party heading into November, I think that alone would have meant that the Democrats had essentially zero chance.”
Shortly after Biden announced he had dropped out of the race, he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee. But former President Barack Obama notably did not endorse Harris, saying that the party “will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead.”
