As US President Joe Biden announces his decision to drop out of the November election, top leaders from the Republican Party say he must resign as president “immediately”.
“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, the top Republican in the US Congress, said in a statement on Sunday.
Johnson characterised Biden’s withdrawal as an “unprecedented” moment in United States history.
“We must be clear about what just happened. The Democrat Party forced the Democrat nominee off the ballot, just over 100 days before the election,” he wrote.
“Having invalidated the votes of more than 14 million Americans who selected Joe Biden to be the Democrat nominee for president, the self-proclaimed ‘party of democracy’ has proven exactly the opposite.”
Biden said he intends to serve out the remainder of his term, which ends on January 20, 2025. But Biden’s Republican opponents, including Donald Trump, slammed his presidency and called for the 81-year-old to resign before the end of his term.
“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve – And never was!” Trump posted on his Truth Social network.
The Republicans have seized on Biden’s poor debate performance last month to batter him as incapable of serving four more years. Now that he is out of the presidential election, many are saying he should resign from his office, too.
Johnson, in a separate interview with the network ABC, hinted that the Republicans may mount legal challenges to the Democrats’ move to replace Biden on the ballot.
Johnson also used his post for an attack on Vice President Kamala Harris, who Biden has proposed as his replacement candidate. Johnson described Harris as “a gleeful accomplice” who “co-owns the disastrous policy failures of the Biden Administration”.
“Regardless of the chaos in the current White House, our adversaries around the globe should be reminded that the US Congress, the US military, and the American people are fully prepared and committed to defend our interests both at home and abroad,” Johnson wrote.
Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, said on X that not running for re-election would be a “clear admission” that Trump was right all along about Biden “not being mentally fit enough to serve as Commander-in-Chief”.
“There is no middle ground,” he added.
Elise Stefanik, House Republican Conference chairperson, shared a similar sentiment, saying in a statement that if Biden can’t run for re-election, he is “unable and unfit to serve” as the US president.
Meanwhile, the Democrats have defended Biden’s decision, calling it a “patriotic” and “selfless” move.
In a joint statement, former President Bill Clinton and ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said they “join millions of Americans in thanking President Biden for all that he accomplished”. They also threw their weight behind Harris to be the Democratic nominee to face Trump in November.
“Now is the time to support Kamala Harris and fight with everything we’ve got to elect her. America’s future depends on it,” the Clintons said.
Former President Barack Obama, who picked then-Senator Biden as his running mate in 2008, called him a “patriot of the highest order”, but warned of “uncharted waters in the days ahead” – and stopped short of endorsing Harris.
“I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges,” the former US leader and Democratic Party member said in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that Biden has not only been a “great president and a great legislative leader but he is a truly amazing human being”.
“His decision of course was not easy, but he once again put his country, his party, and our future first,” he said.
Schumer and Senator Dick Durbin, the top two Senate Democrats, however, did not offer support for Biden’s proposed replacement, Harris.
“Now the Democratic Party must unite behind a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump and keep America moving in the right direction. I will do everything in my power to help that effort,” Durbin said.
