WASHINGTON, July 21 - President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House on Sunday, ending his bid for reelection after a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised doubts about the incumbent’s fitness for office.

The unprecedented announcement, delivered less than four months before the election, immediately upended a campaign that both political parties view as the most consequential in generations, The Associated Press reported.

The president — intent on serving out the remainder of his term in office — quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take on Trump and encouraged his party to unite behind her, making her the party’s instant favorite for the nomination at its August convention in Chicago.

Biden’s withdrawal from the U.S. presidential race injects greater uncertainty into the world at a time when Western leaders are grappling with wars in Ukraine and Gaza, a more assertive China in Asia and the rise of the far-right in Europe.

During a five-decade career in politics, Biden developed extensive personal relationships with multiple foreign leaders that none of the potential replacements on the Democratic ticket can match.

After his announcement, messages of support and gratitude for his years of service poured in from near and far. The scope of foreign policy challenges facing the next U.S. president makes clear how consequential what happens in Washington is for the rest of the planet.

Donald Trump’s campaign has spent the last year-and-a-half viciously attacking Biden, ridiculing his policies, mocking his fumbles and relishing a rematch they felt they were winning.

But they have also spent weeks preparing for the possibility that Biden might exit the race, readying a bevy of attacks against Harris that they unleashed as soon as Biden made his stunning announcement Sunday that he would step aside.

Democrats quickly rallied around Vice President Kamala Harris as their likely presidential nominee Sunday after Biden‘s decision to bow out of the 2024 race.

Shortly after Biden stepped aside he firmly endorsed Harris, who would make history as the nation’s first Black and South Asian woman to become a major party’s presidential nominee.

Other endorsements flowed from former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, the first major female presidential nominee, and prominent

U.S. senators, a wide swath of House representatives and members of the influential Congressional Black Caucus. (ap/ez)