Internet searches for "Did Joe Biden drop out" jumped on election night, suggesting that some Americans had no idea the current president was not running again.
The spike began around 6 a.m. on Election Day, and continued to rise over the course of the day until reaching its peak at midnight Wednesday, according to Google Trends. After a brief drop overnight, searches for the question spike again around 8 a.m.
Imagine being a voter who just today found out Joe Biden isn’t running pic.twitter.com/sLFuHTJmj6
— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) November 5, 2024
Prior to Election Day, searches for "Did Joe Biden drop out" were minimal, with a query for results back as far as Oct. 6 showing that the phrase was searched little to no times until the days leading up to the election.
News of the spike in Google searches was shared to X, where social media users were stunned. "OMG I hate it here," one user commented. "This is crazy," another user tweeted.
Others laughed at the situation, claiming that those who searched for those results must feel much less stressed than they do. "I'm honestly envious of those people," one user tweeted. "Happiest people on Earth," another user claimed.
Those of us terminally online forget just how many Americans pay zero attention to this. They don’t watch the news. They don’t read news. They come home from work, eat dinner, watch The Bachelor, scroll Tik Tok, then go to bed.
— Vote today! Nov 5! Harris/Walz! Allred! (@krisnoteboom) November 5, 2024
"Those of us terminally online forget just how many Americans pay zero attention to this. They don't watch the news. They don't read the news," another user commented.
While Biden previously announced he would be running for a second term, he dropped out of the race in July and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump beat Harris in Tuesday's election.
Originally published by Latin Times.
