After President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he would not accept his party's nomination for president in 2024 and instead endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him atop the Democrat ticket, Republicans noted one significant problem with the commander-in-chief's admission that he couldn't stick out a full general election campaign.
If Biden as he's now admitted is unfit to run for re-election, how can he possibly be fit enough to continue serving as the supposed leader of the free world?
Former President and 2024 GOP Nominee Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post Sunday afternoon that "Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve - And never was!"
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) put an extra-fine point on the chaos wrought by Democrats to boot Biden and said in a post on X that if "Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President" and "must resign the office immediately."
At this unprecedented juncture in American 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.
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) July 21, 2024
Having invalidated the votes of more than 14 million Americans who selected Joe…
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said Sunday afternoon that if "Joe Biden can't run for re-election, he is unable and unfit to serve as President of the United States. He must immediately resign," she declared in a statement.
"The Democrat Party is in absolute free fall for their blatantly corrupt and desperate attempt to cover up the fact that Joe Biden is unfit for office," Stefanik's statement needled. "Every elected Democrat in America owns Joe Biden’s failed and feckless record causing the border crisis, Bidenflation, and chaos and weakness around the world," she said. "President Trump will win this November to save America."
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued the same call for Biden's resignation in a post on X:
Not fit to run for president, not fit to serve as president.
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) July 21, 2024
Biden should resign immediately.
In a statement provided to Townhall, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said, "Finally, Joe Biden has realized what the rest of the American people and even his own party already knew — he is not only the wrong leader for America, but is wholly incapable of doing the job of President of the United States."
Still, Blackburn said the president "didn't go far enough" because "[i]f Joe is too weak to stay in the race for the presidency, he should resign as our Commander-in-Chief immediately."
Warning Americans not to be fooled, Blackburn emphasized that "the Democrat Party is no better off today than they were yesterday" and it "doesn't matter who is the new face of the ticket in November; it will still be the same old Biden-Harris policies that have made the lives of hardworking Americans more difficult."
"We cannot afford another four years of economic instability, chaos abroad, and crisis after crisis in our communities," Blackburn's statement continued. "That is why we must elect President Donald J. Trump and JD Vance to reverse these terrible policies and restore American prosperity."
Earlier on Sunday, before Biden announced he'd step aside, U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH), now the Republican nominee for vice president alongside Donald Trump, said in a post on X that Biden would be unable to justify remaining in office if he dropped out of the 2024 campaign:
If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining President?
— JD Vance (@JDVance1) July 21, 2024
Not running for reelection would be a clear admission that President Trump was right all along about Biden not being mentally fit enough to serve as Commander-in-Chief.
There is no middle ground.
Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) was one of many congressional Republican voices calling on Biden to fully step down now that he's seen the writing on the wall about his inability to mount a re-election campaign:
Unfit to stand trial.
— Rep. Brian Mast (@RepBrianMast) July 21, 2024
Unfit to run.
Unfit to be president for 1 more second. https://t.co/BH8hgRoFPW
This is a developing story and will be updated with additional reaction from Republicans.