Biden Just Dropped an Economic Bombshell

Biden’s decision to quit his the campaign leaves the nation in a state of deep economic uncertainty.

A second Biden presidency is officially off the table, following an announcement from the sitting President that he will end his reelection campaign “in the best interest of my party and the country.”

His exit marks the first time a sitting president has declined to run for a second term since the deeply unpopular and divisive Lyndon Johnson. Biden’s decision also comes late in the election cycle, leaving voters just slightly over 100 days to make their final decision.

According to historians: “It’s unprecedented.”

The news sparked a flurry of conflicting economic headlines, which have left consumers more flustered and confused than ever. A Bloomberg headline that originally read “Gold Climbs” now includes the phrase “gold edged lower” in the first sentence. Changes are happening within the hour as investors plan, forecast, and react.

The bottom line: On Tuesday, in the wake of Biden’s news, gold is creeping upward amid a cautious market reaction. Investors are realizing that a Biden withdrawal doesn’t mean a better candidate is guaranteed to win–and that even if it did, Biden’s presidency will almost inevitably last for six more months.

In fact, that’s the looming question left by Biden’s official announcement. If Biden isn’t fit to run for reelection, some worry whether he’s fit to run the country until Inauguration Day.

“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson. “He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.”

Or, in Trump’s words on social media: “Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for president, and is certainly not fit to serve–And never was!”

Reports suggest that Republicans may also challenge the Democratic Party’s legal right to put forward a new candidate after Biden’s withdrawal, though no lawsuit has been filed. Legal experts say such a case is unlikely to succeed, especially because Biden was never the Party’s official nominee.

“The Democratic Party did not have an official nominee yesterday, and the same can be said today,” David Becker, an election law expert who works with candidates of both parties, told CNN. “Until the delegates vote, Democratic Party rules state that there is no official Democratic nominee. There was no one to be ‘replaced’ on the ballot because there is nothing to replace yet.”

For now, there’s no definitive answer on who will become the Democratic nominee. Biden has officially endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who polled at just three percentage points behind Trump in a hypothetical matchup by the New York Times–a difference that falls within the poll’s margin of error. Early indicators suggested Joe Manchin (I-VA) might enter the race, but in a Monday interview with CNN, he confirmed he is “not running for office” and is not under consideration for vice president.

That’s good news for some, who worried an independent like Manchin might split the Republican ticket–and bad news for others who are disillusioned with the solid party lines.

“I want the middle to have a voice,” Manchin said on CNN, complaining that Kamala Harris is “absolutely” too far left. “We’re not extreme left, we’re not extreme right …. Why do I have to only have two choices of a party?”

With Biden officially out of the running, hypothetical polls show that the race may have gotten closer. In a New York Times poll, taken before Biden’s withdrawal, Harris’s then-hypothetical campaign polled at just three percentage points behind Trump. In less than one day, Harris’s campaign raised nearly $50 million in grassroots donations, smashing previous fundraising records, and secured enough Democratic delegates to pass the official threshold for nomination.

That’s particularly bad news for Trump, who–ironically–once donated $6,000 to Harris’s attorney general campaign in California.

The shakeup puts additional strain on an economy already plagued by global conflict and major political events hitting in quick succession. European news sites are celebrating a climb in U.S. stock value in the wake of Biden’s withdrawal, but are also cautioning investors that the dollar’s struggle is unlikely to be over yet. Meanwhile, commodities markets are reacting to the announcement with skepticism, waiting to see who the Democrats back next.

Despite major shortcomings in Harris’s campaign, writers said, she’s in a position to seriously challenge Trump.

“One [way to become the presidential nominee] is to rise up as an insider, brushing past rivals while taking advantage of a family name, a long run in Congress or the mentorship of powerful elders,” the article stated. “Kamala Harris … belongs emphatically to [that] camp. To understand her prospects, start here: Ms Harris is a creature of institutional politics, not a visionary or an idealogue.”