President Biden partly delayed dropping his 2024 re-election campaign because he doubted whether Vice President Kamala Harris could actually take on Donald Trump, a new report says.
The 81-year-old president and his senior advisers had expressed the concerns about whether the veep was up to the challenge of facing off against Trump in the lead up to his historic announcement, Axios reported Monday, citing three Biden aides familiar with the conversations.
Still, Biden ultimately ended up endorsing Harris, 59, when he revealed he was stepping aside Sunday — weeks after his train wreck debate against Trump threw his campaign into disarray.
Meanwhile, Biden and Harris spoke repeatedly over the phone in the hours before the bombshell announcement was made public, sources said.
Harris, on her part, spent more than 10 hours making frantic calls to Democratic party leaders and politicians, sources told the Wall Street Journal.