It took a bit over three weeks following his debate with Donald Trump for President Biden to concede that he ought to drop out of the presidential race — from June 27 to July 21. Doubtlessly a lot of discussions happened under the hood along the way, including talks between Biden and his advisors and family, perhaps phone calls between Biden and some of the individuals who came out asking him to step down, and so forth. While three-plus weeks isn’t exactly a lot of time to make such a weighty, life-altering decision, some outlets were asking the very next day after the debate why Biden hadn’t stepped down already.
Though there are no official statements explaining why Biden didn’t step down earlier, it stands to reason that the closeness to the November 5 general presidential election has something to do with the delay as well as the need to hurry. Biden was going to be announced as the official Democratic Party presidential candidate at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) from August 19 to 22. This means that on one hand, Biden had a limited time to make his decision to drop out, especially considering the need to endorse and prop up another candidate. It also means that because the DNC is fast approaching it was already late in the process for the Democratic Party to swap candidates. In the end, for better or for worse, Biden waited a bit.
