Senior Staff Learned of Biden Decision 1 Minute Before Public

President Biden, ill with COVID-19, had taken to his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, vacation home. Up until Sunday, he was determined to stay in the 2024 presidential race, reports the AP in its extensive look at the timeline of his decision to step aside. But on Sunday, at his beach house with his wife and a tight inner circle by his side, he changed his mind—in a reversal so abrupt, staffers were said to be "blindsided" by the news. A timeline, from anonymous sources who spoke to the AP, Politico, and Wired:

• July 13: Sen. Chuck Schumer met with Biden in Rehoboth, expressing his concerns and the concerns of other senators. (On this same day, Donald Trump was shot at his Pennsylvania rally.) Biden told Schumer he needed another week to consider his next move.
• Saturday night: Biden started to come around to the idea that he would not run for re-election, and started drafting a letter to the American people regarding his decision.
• Sunday: With the first lady as well as chief strategist Mike Donilon, counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, White House deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini, and Anthony Bernal, senior adviser to the first lady—advisers who have been with Biden for decades—the decision was finalized. The president also spent a lot of time on the phone with his VP, Kamala Harris.
• Sunday, 1:45pm: The president first informed White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and his longtime aide and campaign chairwoman Jen O'Malley Dillon. Then, at 1:45pm, senior advisers from both the campaign and the White House were assembled on a call to hear Biden's decision.

• Sunday, 1:46pm: Biden's campaign staff released his announcement on social media. The team decided to release the news right away rather than allow it to leak ahead of a planned address to the nation announcing his decision, which Biden is expected to make early this week.
• Sunday, 2:03pm: It was around 20 minutes after the announcement was posted that other campaign staffers were alerted to what was going on. "Team, sharing with you the letter from President Biden that was released just now. We will have more information later this afternoon," read the all-staff email. Indeed, some staffers had been phoning delegates at the very moment the announcement was posted online, sources say.
• Sunday, 2:13pm: Biden endorsed Harris on social media. The decision not to include an endorsement in his first statement was strategic, sources say; the team wanted to, per the AP, "give the president's initial statement full weight, and to put a period on the moment before launching forward into the next step."
• Later Sunday: It took hours for Biden's campaign website and Harris' website to be updated. By evening, Biden for President had been formally changed to Harris for President, and campaign staffers were told that since the operation was simply shifting to a campaign for Harris, their jobs were safe.

(More Election 2024 stories.)