We bring in CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia
Jiang because she is at the vice president's residence.
And Weijia has some new reporting on what happened this
weekend that led up to the president's decision.
Weija, what can you tell us, Nora?
That's right.
I think first, we should remember there were three things
that President Biden said might be able to change his
mind when he was being pressed about whether he would
even consider leaving the race.
Number one was the Lord almighty #2 was some sort
of medical condition that sidelined him.
And #3 was if his team showed him data that
showed that there was no way he could win.
And that's why that's so important or because we know
that he was surrounded while he was isolating, recovering from
COVID with his very top, most trusted advisors, including Mike
Donilon, who is known as the data guy, the guy
who can really interpret what the figures mean for the
president.
So we know that last night, on Saturday, he was
surrounded by this team and they were continuing to work
through a potential path forward.
But the president, we are told from people familiar with
his schedule and these conversations began to come to this
ultimate decision yesterday evening alongside his team.
And then today, he made separate calls to the people
who needed to know the most, including Vice President Harris,
his chief of staff, Jeff Zients, the campaign chair, General
Malley Dillon, all separately to talk with them about his
decision before releasing his letter at 1:46 PM today.
And then shortly after that, because, you know, in that
letter he was writing in his capacity as president, he
said he was appreciative of Vice President Harris for being
an extraordinary partner, but there were questions about why he
did not formally endorse her.
Well, then half an hour later from his campaign account,
he did release a tweet, a statement formally endorsing her,
asking America to fully get behind her.
And then in the mid afternoon, we know that there
was a senior staff call and that as we've been
reporting that Jeff Zions held a call also with the
Cabinet and members of the cabinet to just bring them
up to speed with what's going on.
And this afternoon, the president actually spent the afternoon making
phone calls and talking to people who he, you know,
wanted to expand on his decision with.
And, you know, as you can imagine, this is a
very difficult time for the president.
And at one point, it seemed like he was so
dug in that he wasn't going to reconsider.
But, of course, it became untenable.
And he came to this decision that affects so many.
But here at the vice president's residence, we have not
seen a glimpse of her yet.
And we are told we should not expect to today,
but we have seen a lot of excited supporters leaving
signs, including some little ones here who are very thrilled
about the, you know, what has unfolded in the past
few hours.
Margaret.
Well, thank you, Weijia Jiang.
And, and anyone who has covered Joe Biden knows that
he really takes his time with decisions.
He's known for painting over decisions, so we have to
believe that this wasn't sudden and it was methodical and
it was data-driven.
And it was Socratic in the sense that he would
have asked a small but influential group of advisers and
probably was taking account of what lawmakers were saying and
the way they were saying it.
So perhaps no surprise that it took a few days,
but it happened.
Also notable that there's a crowd outside the vice president's
house.
Anyone who knows Washington knows that is not a place
people normally congregate.
So it's a sign that this afternoon, at least some
who live around there are excited about the news that
she's now running and is expected to or, you know,
could very well become the Democratic nominee.
Not not an easy corner to stand in in Washington.