When presumptive nominee President Biden spent Election Day at the White House without public events

For most of 2023 and 2024, President Joe Biden charted a course for November 5, 2024. As the incumbent, the veteran politician was the presumptive Democratic nominee, gaining enough delegates in March to lock himself into a close race with the former president. Donald Trump.

But instead of spending Election Day preparing for an evening speech, the president’s daily schedule is empty beyond his daily briefing of aides: No public events.

The president and first lady Jill Biden will spend election night watching the election results in the White House residence with “longtime aides and senior White House staff,” according to a White House official.

“The President will receive regular updates on the state of races across the country,” the official added.

On Monday night, the 81-year-old Biden also held talks with Democratic party chairmen across the country. Ben Wikler, the chairman of the Wisconsin State Democratic Party, told ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks that the call was “electrifying.”

Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, on July 21 in the wake of a disastrous performance in the first presidential debate and under pressure from prominent Democrats.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president,” he wrote in part in a letter posted on social media. “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 that I step down and focus solely on carrying out my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”

Biden sparked controversy at the last minute on October 29 when he appeared to call Trump supporters “garbage” during a campaign call organized by the nonprofit Voto Latino.

“The only trash I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been,” said Biden.

Trump quickly seized on the comments, saying Biden “meant it,” though the president posted a clarification saying his comment was about the comedian who made the joke and was “referring to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter his Madison Square Garden meeting as trash—which is the only word I can think of to describe it.”

“His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments about that meeting do not reflect who we are as a nation,” Biden said in the post on X.