"I can't stay quiet": Melinda French Gates backs Biden in first-ever POTUS endorsement

• French Gates said earlier this year that she was resigning from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which she co-founded with her ex-husband Bill Gates. She said she would continue to focus on gender equity.
• Biden's emphasis on protecting reproductive rights is a big reason for her endorsement, French Gates said, writing in a CNN op-ed out Thursday that former President Trump's "first term in office endangered the health of women."

Driving the news: "This year's election stands to be so enormously consequential for women and families that, this time, I can't stay quiet," Gates wrote on the social media platform X.

• "Women deserve a leader who cares about the issues they face and is committed to protecting their safety, their health, their economic power, their reproductive rights, and their ability to freely and fully participate in a functioning democracy," she said.
• "In this election, the contrast couldn't be greater, and the stakes couldn't be higher. I will be voting for President Biden."

Zoom in: When asked by CBS News' Gayle King earlier this week if she would endorse or campaign for a presidential candidate, Gates said, "more than likely, yes."

• Gates said that she has voted for both Republicans and Democrats in past elections.
• "It is gonna come down in this election, it will come down to the women turning out in the battleground states," Gates told CBS News.

State of play: Gates announced in May that she was resigning from the Gates Foundation.

• After her resignation announcement, she said that she would donate $1 billion through 2026 to advance women's rights and health around the world.

Between the lines: While the Gates foundation, which is nonpartisan, has not formally endorsed a presidential candidate, it has given to the Barack Obama Foundation and the George W. Bush Foundation.

Go deeper: Melinda French Gates' $12.5 billion exit