TIME White House Correspondent Brian Bennett speaks outside of the White House.
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00:00How did Joe Biden decide to drop out of the race?
00:02I'm Brian Bennett, Times White House correspondent.
00:04And last night I wrote the inside story of Biden's decision to no longer run for president.
00:11It was Saturday in Rehoboth, at his beach house, in the evening,
00:15when President Biden decided he would drop out.
00:18He brought together his closest political advisors,
00:20Annie Tomasini, Steve Ruscetti, Mike Donilon, and his first lady, Jill Biden,
00:27as well as Anthony Bernal, her senior advisor.
00:29And they sat down in the evening and they discussed how Joe Biden was going to drop out,
00:34what he should say, and what the next step should be.
00:37They kept that a secret all night until Sunday.
00:41President Biden started calling top aides.
00:44He called Kamala Harris multiple times.
00:46He called Jeff Zients, the chief of staff of the White House.
00:49And he also called his campaign director, General Malley Dillon.
00:55And then he called a conference call with senior leaders.
01:00And a minute into that call, he released on Twitter
01:04the formal statement, stepping down from the race.