A veteran and high-ranking Democratic lawmaker claims she was in the dark about President Biden’s intention to resign from the 2024 presidential campaign.
Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters from California spoke to Politico on Monday, saying Biden dropping off the party’s ticket caught her completely off-guard after she ‘woke up to it on the television.’
‘I was angry at first, because we’d worked so hard to give him the kind of support that would cause him to stay,’ Waters told Politico. ‘We had been told up to the last minute that he was going to stay.’
She continued, ‘After I calmed down, I was alright, because in doing that, he endorsed Kamala [Harris]. And I thought, well, that’s great.’
Waters was a die-hard defender of Biden following his disastrous performance in the first presidential debate that led the U.S. public to question his mental capacities.
She consistently pushed back on any intention to replace the president with a stronger Democratic candidate and told Politico she has ‘seen him at his best.’
However, Waters has also been a high-profile ally of Harris. The California representative told Politico that she sees Harris as a friend and didn’t hesitate to endorse her.
‘I tell you that Trump, the MAGA crowd, racists — I think that they’re going to hit and they’re going to hit hard,’ she said of challenges facing Harris. ‘They’re going to do everything that they can do to try and convince their crowd and others that she should not be the president and he will be dog whistling about a woman and a Black in ways that he knows how to do.’
Biden will address the nation on Wednesday about why he decided to exit the race and what he plans to focus on for the remaining six months of his first term. His address will be delivered from the Oval Office, the White House said.
The president was seen in public for the first time in six days on Tuesday at Dover Air Force as he returned to the nation’s capital from his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.