President Joe Biden’s announcement stunned White House and campaign aides, who up until this afternoon were insisting that he would stay in the race. Many of them, including some senior aides, first found out that was no longer the case by reading the letter that Biden posted on X.

“We’re all finding out by tweet,” said one Democrat familiar with the immediate reaction. “None of us understand what’s happening.”

In a sign of the abruptness of Biden’s decision, the campaign blasted out a fundraising email for “Joe and Kamala” at 1:54 p.m. — eight minutes after Biden announced he was stepping aside.

Exit question: “Was this a planned social-media campaign or a haphazard response to the bullying that Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi and her allies, pummeled Biden with last week? Probably should’ve scrubbed some of the tweets posted mere hours before Biden announced his withdrawal — posts in which he doubled and tripled down on his intent to run in November.”