【中美创新时报2024 年 7 月 21 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）拜登总统周日宣布退出竞选，颠覆了本已动荡的 2024 年大选，这是一个令人震惊的历史性发展，就在 24 天前，一场灾难性的辩论表现引发了民主党人的恐慌，他们认为这位有史以来最年长的总统无法阻止唐纳德·特朗普重返白宫。《波士顿环球报》记者吉姆·普赞格拉（Jim Puzzanghera）和塔尔·柯潘（Tal Kopan）对此作了下述报道。
现年 81 岁的拜登将继续担任总统，但他将成为 50 多年来第一位未连任第二任期的现任总统。拜登在宣布退出竞选后不久的一条推文中表示支持副总统卡马拉·哈里斯，希望推动他的执政伙伴保留他的政策，同时也避免为继任者而展开分裂性斗争。
“作为 2020 年的党内候选人，我的第一个决定就是选择卡马拉·哈里斯作为我的副总统，”拜登写道。“这是我做出的最好决定。今天，我想全力支持和认可卡马拉成为我们今年的党内候选人。”
虽然 59 岁的哈里斯是继任者，但其他知名民主党人可能会在 8 月 19 日开始的可能混乱的党内大会上争夺第一名。
在现代美国政治中，从未有推定的总统候选人在大会前夕退出竞选。选择替代方案的过程尚不明确，尤其是在没有达成共识的情况下，民主党将陷入未知领域，几乎没有时间做出选择。除此之外，无论谁是提名人，都必须在短时间内挑选竞选伙伴。
马萨诸塞州参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦迅速支持哈里斯，并告诉《波士顿环球报》，她相信该党将团结在副总统周围。
“整个竞选刚刚发生了变化。我们有一名检察官现在将直接与一名被定罪的重罪犯抗争，”沃伦说，指的是特朗普在 5 月的纽约封口费审判中被定罪 34 项重罪。“作为民主党人，我们非常幸运能有人站出来，把这件事交给唐纳德·特朗普并打败他。”
哈里斯发表声明，感谢拜登“作为美国总统的非凡领导以及他数十年来为我们的国家服务”。
“我很荣幸得到总统的支持，我的目标是赢得提名，”她说。 “我将竭尽全力团结民主党——团结我们的国家——击败唐纳德·特朗普和他的极端的 2025 计划议程。”
周日，在拜登的决定尘埃落定之前，对哈里斯的支持迅速涌现，其中包括沃伦、波士顿众议员阿亚娜·普雷斯利和华盛顿众议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔等领先的进步人士。
共和党人也迅速做出回应。众议院议长迈克·约翰逊呼吁拜登辞去总统职务，特朗普嘲笑拜登不适合任职。
“所以，我们被迫花时间和金钱来对抗骗子乔·拜登，他在一场糟糕的辩论后民调很差，并退出了竞选，”特朗普在他的社交媒体平台 Truth Social 上写道。“现在我们必须重新开始。”
特朗普的竞选团队立即将注意力转向哈里斯。
“卡马拉·哈里斯和拜登一样可笑。竞选高级顾问克里斯·拉西维塔 (Chris LaCivita) 和苏西·威尔斯 (Susie Wiles) 在一份声明中表示：“哈里斯对我们国家的人民的影响将比乔·拜登更糟糕。哈里斯一直是骗子乔的首席推动者。他们拥有彼此的记录，两者之间没有任何距离。”
拜登在 X 周日发布的公开信中吹捧自己的成就，表示国家在过去三年半中“取得了巨大进步”，并感谢美国人民的支持。
“能担任你们的总统是我一生中最大的荣幸，”他在特拉华州里霍博斯比奇的度假屋中写信，他正在那里从 COVID 中康复。 “虽然我一直打算竞选连任，但我认为，为了我党和国家的最大利益，我应该辞职，专注于在剩余任期内履行总统职责。”
拜登决定辞职，是因为他的支持率在 6 月 27 日的辩论后开始下滑。在 5130 万美国人观看的辩论中，拜登一度思路混乱，对其他问题给出了含糊不清的回答，而且——对许多民主党人来说，也许最重要的是——未能在堕胎等重大问题上积极攻击特朗普，也未能有效反驳他的无数谎言。尽管竞选团队数周来试图证明这种表现只是个例，但为时已晚。
随着越来越多的民主党人开始公开表达对他的候选资格的担忧，拜登加强了损害控制。他在白宫会见了包括马萨诸塞州的莫拉·希利（Maura Healey ）在内的民主党州长，并接受了美国广播公司新闻频道的 George Stephanopoulos 的采访。7 月 11 日，在华盛顿举行的北约峰会结束时举行的新闻发布会是另一场考验，让拜登展示他对复杂的外交政策问题仍然有把握。
7 月 13 日，在宾夕法尼亚州的竞选集会上，前特朗普遭到令人震惊的暗杀未遂，这才短暂暂停了施压活动。几天后，距离选举日不到四个月，两党分裂的局面十分明显。当特朗普沉浸在党内完全统一的光辉中时，民主党领导人通过公共和私人渠道越来越明确地表示，拜登是时候下台了。
拜登仍然态度强硬，坚称他无意下台，直到他下台。
马萨诸塞州参议员埃德·马基周六在普罗温斯敦为拜登-哈里斯竞选筹款时见到了哈里斯，他说，他相信这一声明可以让对话“继续进行”，从而激励民主党人支持他所支持的哈里斯。
马基说：“我认为每个人都在回头看今天下午之前发生的事情，从现在开始，一切都将向前看。”
伯恩代表比尔·基廷也参加了普罗温斯敦的活动，他说，周日的意外消息毫无征兆。他说，最近几天，他听到自己所在选区的选民“极度”担心拜登会输掉大选。
“这几乎是绝望的，”基廷说。
民主党人认为，78 岁的特朗普是美国民主的生存威胁，必须击败他，尤其是在他试图推翻 2020 年大选结果，以及最近最高法院大幅扩大总统豁免权的裁决之后。四年前，拜登对中西部工薪阶层选民的吸引力帮助他克服了人们对他高龄的担忧，并推动他获得 2020 年提名，成为推翻特朗普的最佳人选。
当时，拜登自称是通向新一代民主党领导人的“桥梁”，暗示——尽管从未直接说过——如果当选，他只会任职一届。但当特朗普克服了共和党人最初对他煽动 2021 年 1 月 6 日国会大厦袭击事件以及与此和其他违法行为相关的一系列刑事指控的愤怒时，拜登决定再次参选。
“如果特朗普不参选，我不确定我会参选，”拜登去年 12 月在波士顿的一次筹款活动上说。“我们不能让他赢。”
但在 2024 年大选的关键战场州民调中落后数月，然后在历史性的早期辩论中失利，他希望能改变竞选的动态，拜登失去了他最大的卖点：民主党人相信他是该党对抗特朗普的最佳候选人。
美国人在 2020 年疫情期间选举了拜登，因为他承诺在特朗普执政四年动荡之后提供稳定支持。对拜登来说，这是他近五十年国家政治生涯的巅峰，其中包括杰出的 36 年参议院任期和巴拉克·奥巴马执政期间的两届副总统任期。
为了最终入主白宫，拜登在两次总统竞选失败后坚持不懈，并克服了一生中的多重障碍：童年口吃、导致第一任妻子和年幼女儿死亡的悲惨车祸、危及生命的动脉瘤以及儿子博因癌症去世。作为一名老派、喜欢拍马屁的政客，拜登与两党都建立了牢固的关系。
但在辩论惨败后，这些都无法挽救他。周日，他在信的结尾处，经常在演讲中重复乐观的话语，因为他已经成为一名跛脚鸭总统。
“我今天相信我一直以来的信念：没有什么是美国做不到的——只要我们齐心协力，”他写道。“我们只需要记住，我们是美利坚合众国。”
题图：6 月 27 日，拜登总统在 CNN 演播室与唐纳德·特朗普一起参加 2024 年大选的第一场总统辩论时低头。ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
附原英文报道：
Biden drops out of presidential race, endorses Harris as his replacement
By Jim Puzzanghera and Tal Kopan Globe Staff,Updated July 21, 2024
WASHINGTON — President Biden upended the already turbulent 2024 election by announcing Sunday he was dropping out of the race, a stunning and historic development just 24 days after a disastrous debate performance triggered panic among Democrats that the oldest president ever wasn’t capable of preventing Donald Trump from returning to the White House.
Biden, 81, will remain as president but becomes the first incumbent in more than five decades not to stand for a second full term. In a tweet shortly after his announcement, Biden threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris in hopes of propelling his governing partner to preserve his policies while also seeking to avoid a divisive fight for his replacement.
“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,” Biden wrote. “And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.”
But while Harris, 59, is the heir apparent, other prominent Democrats could vie for the top spot on the ticket in a potentially chaotic party convention set to start on Aug. 19.
A presumptive presidential nominee has never dropped out of the race so close to the convention in modern US politics. The process for selecting an alternative is unclear, particularly if there’s no consensus, putting the Democrats in uncharted territory with little time to settle on a choice. On top of that, whoever is the nominee will have to pick a running mate in short order.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren swiftly endorsed Harris and told the Globe she believes the party will coalesce around the vice president.
“The whole race has just shifted. We have a prosecutor who will now be directly contesting a convicted felon,” Warren said, referencing Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts in his New York hush money trial in May. “We are very fortunate as Democrats to have someone who can step up, take it to Donald Trump and beat him.”
Harris issued a statement thanking Biden “for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country.”
“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” she said. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”
Endorsements of Harris quickly rolled in Sunday before the dust even settled on Biden’s decision, including from leading progressives such as Warren and Representatives Ayanna Pressley of Boston and Pramila Jayapal of Washington.
Republicans were also quick to respond. House Speaker Mike Johnson called on Biden to resign the presidency and Trump ridiculed Biden as unfit to serve.
“So, we are forced to spend time and money on fighting Crooked Joe Biden, he polls badly after having a terrible debate, and quits the race,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “Now we have to start all over again.”
Trump’s campaign immediately pivoted their focus to Harris.
“Kamala Harris is just as much of joke as Biden is. Harris will be even WORSE for the people of our Nation than Joe Biden,” campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement. “Harris has been the Enabler in Chief for Crooked Joe this entire time. They own each other’s records, and there is no distance between the two.”
In his public letter posted on X Sunday, Biden touted his accomplishments, said the nation had “made great progress” over the past three and a half years, and thanked the American people for their support.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he wrote in a letter from his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., where he is recovering from COVID. “And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
The decision by Biden to step aside came after his support began cratering following the June 27 debate. As 51.3 million Americans watched, Biden lost his train of thought at one point, gave rambling answers to other questions and — perhaps most importantly for many Democrats — failed to aggressively attack Trump on major issues including abortion and effectively counter his numerous lies. And although the campaign tried for weeks to prove the performance was an anomaly, it was too late.
As more Democrats began going public with their concerns about his candidacy, Biden stepped up his damage control. He met with Democratic governors, including Maura Healey of Massachusetts, at the White House and sat down for an interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News. A press conference at the close of the NATO summit in DC on July 11 was another test and allowed Biden to show he retained a grasp of complex foreign policy issues.
The shocking attempted assassination of former Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on July 13 paused the pressure campaign only briefly. A few days later, the split screen of the two parties less than four months ahead of election day was stark. As Trump basked in the glow of a fully unified party, Democratic leaders made it increasingly clear through public and private channels that it was time for Biden to step aside.
Biden remained defiant, insisting that he had no intention of stepping aside, until he did.
Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey saw Harris on Saturday when she was in Provincetown for a fund-raiser for the Biden-Harris ticket and said he believes the announcement allows the conversation to “move on” in a way that will galvanize Democrats around Harris, whom he endorsed.
“I think everyone was looking over their shoulder in a rearview mirror on what has transpired up until this afternoon, and everything is just going to be forward looking from now on,” Markey said.
Bourne Representative Bill Keating, who was also at the Provincetown event, said there was no inkling of Sunday’s surprise news. In recent days, he said, he’s been hearing “overwhelming” concerns from voters in his district that Biden would lose the election.
”It was almost desperate,” Keating said.
Democrats view Trump, 78, as an existential threat to American democracy who must be defeated, particularly after his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and a recent Supreme Court decision that greatly expands presidential immunity. Biden’s ability to appeal to working class Midwestern voters helped overcome concerns about his advanced age four years ago and propelled him to the 2020 nomination as the best choice to topple Trump.
At the time, Biden billed himself as a “bridge” to a new generation of Democratic leaders, suggesting — although never directly saying — that he would serve only one term if elected. But when Trump overcame some initial Republican outrage over his role inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and a slew of criminal charges related to that and other transgressions, Biden decided to run again.
“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” Biden said at a Boston fund-raiser last December. “We cannot let him win.”
But after trailing in the 2024 polls for months in key battleground states and then faltering in an historically early debate he hoped would change the race’s dynamic, Biden lost his greatest selling point: the belief among Democrats he was the party’s best candidate against Trump.
Americans elected Biden in the midst of the pandemic in 2020 on his promise to provide a steady hand after four tumultuous years under Trump. For Biden, it was the culmination of a nearly five-decade career in national politics that included a distinguished 36-year Senate tenure and two terms as vice president under Barack Obama.
To finally make it to the Oval Office, Biden persevered after two failed presidential runs and overcame multiple obstacles throughout his life: a childhood stutter, a tragic auto accident that killed his first wife and young daughter, a life-threatening aneurysm, and the death of his son, Beau, from cancer. An old-style, back-slapping politician, Biden built strong relationships on both sides of the aisle.
But those couldn’t save him after his debate debacle. He ended his letter Sunday with a frequent refrain of optimism from his speeches as he becomes a lame duck president.
“I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing American can’t do — when we do it together,” he wrote. “We just have to remember we are the United States of America.”
