White House claims Biden did not quit race for ‘his health,’ made decision in ‘short period of time’ on Sunday

"So you're saying that he believes that he's capable of serving another four years but he just doesn't believe that he can win another four years?" the reporters asked.

"I will let the president speak for himself," Jean-Pierre said. On Sunday, Biden backed out of the competition for the White House and endorsed his vice president Kamala Harris. She was immediately taken up and glorified by Party elites, though she hasn't earned a single vote during this election season and is not on any primary ballots.

The reporter pressed, "so today, the president believes he is capable, fully capable, of serving in the office that he currently has now and for the next four and a half years if he wanted to do that?"

"Absolutely," Jean-Pierre said with a straight face. Then she quoted from Biden's campaign resignation letter, posted to X on Sunday afternoon. "It is in the best interests of my Party," Biden wrote, "and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term."

Biden notably put Party first, though Jean-Pierre told reporters in the briefing room that his decision was about "putting country first." She continued to refer questions to his speech.

Another White House reporter insisted on trying to get answers. She asked about Biden's statement that "it's in the country's best interests to step aside," wondering "why is it in the country's best interest for him to step aside? Does it have to do with his health—"

Jean-Pierre jumped in, saying "it does not have to do—they have nothing to do with his health. Again, the President's going to speak to this directly, to the American people, tonight, in prime time. I know you all will be watching it, there's specials going on tonight. He will, I promise you, he will speak to all of this directly tonight."

Again, she referred to the letter, saying "he talked about the country, he talked about the Party, he talked about the moment that we're in right now. It is not about his health, I can say no, that's not the reason, but hear him out tonight."

The reporter wasn't satisfied, asking "the president denied for weeks, and you denied for weeks that he was even thinking of stepping aside. What changed from all those days that he had that message to Sunday?"

"He's going to address this as well," Jean-Pierre laughed. "Let him speak for himself. But here's what I will say, um, and I think we gave a little bit of a tiktok to all of you, he met a small group of advisors on Saturday evening and with his family, and just thinking through how to move forward, on Sunday afternoon he made that decision, it was in a very short period of time, as you can imagine, and then at 1:45 he got on the phone with some of his assistants to the president, some advisors, he let them know, and then minutes later a letter went out.

"So it was in a very short period of time," she said, "that the President was able to think about this and make a decision." They she told everyone, again, to watch the speech.

Jean-Pierre had also insisted, prior to taking questions, that Americans are in one of those "rare moments in history" when they have to decide if they want to go "forward or backward."

"This is one of those rare moments in history where the decisions we make now will determine the future of our nation. America must choose between moving forward or backward. Between hope and hate, between unity and division," she said.

Biden's health has been rumored to be declining for years, but most notably after his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump on June 27. After that debate, high-ranking members of his party appeared to badger him, both in public and behind-closed-doors, to abandon his quest for a second White House term.