President Biden’s unprecedented announcement on Sunday that he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race prompted reactions from both sides of the aisle.
Here’s how Republican Senators, members of Congress, governors and high-profile party members are reacting to the president’s decision to leave the race just weeks before the Democratic Convention, handing his endorsement to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Former President Donald Trump
In a post to his social media platform, former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, lambasted Mr. Biden.
“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for president, and is certainly not fit to serve – And never was!” Trump wrote. “He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement.”
Trump added that “we will suffer greatly because of his presidency,” but that Republicans “will remedy the damage.”
In a phone call with CNN minutes after Biden announced his exit from the 2024 race, former Trump said, “He goes down as the single worst president by far in the history of our country.”
Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana
House Speaker Johnson said Mr. Biden’s announcement posed “an unprecedented juncture in American history” and claimed the president’s decision invalidated the votes of millions of Americans who selected Biden as the Democratic nominee.
“The party’s prospects are no better now with Vice President Kamala Harris, who co-owns the disastrous policy failures of the Biden Administration,” Johnson said in a statement, calling on Mr. Biden to resign immediately.
“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President,” Johnson wrote, adding, “November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.”
Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise claimed that Democratic party leaders had “absolutely no respect for their own voters.”
“After lecturing others about democracy, they just forced Joe Biden off the ticket, trashing the primary choice of 14 million of their own voters,” Scalise said in a statement.
“For years, Democrats and their partners in the media maligned Americans who questioned the President’s fitness based on what they saw with their own eyes as conspiracy theorists,” Scalise wrote. “Every single one of these people – especially Vice President Harris – who participated in this cover up must answer for their involvement.”
Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota
Majority Whip Tom Emmer joined the Republican lawmakers calling on Mr. Biden to resign.
“If the Democrat party has deemed Joe Biden unfit to run for re-election, he’s certainly unfit to control our nuclear codes,” Emmer wrote on social media. “Biden must step down from office immediately.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York
Rep. Stefanik, the highest-ranking Republican woman in the House, also claimed that Mr. Biden’s announcement shows he isn’t fit to currently serve as president.
“If Joe Biden can’t run for re-election, he is unable and unfit to serve as President of the United States,” Stefanik said in a statement, urging Mr. Biden to “immediately resign.”
“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 wrote. “President Trump will win this November to save America.”
Sen. Steve Daines of Montana
Sen. Daines formally called on Mr. Biden to resign, saying the president “is no longer capable of serving as President.”
“Being President is the hardest job in the world, and I no longer have confidence that Joe Biden can effectively execute his duties as Commander-in-Chief,” Daines said in a statement. “It is out of concern for our country’s national security that I am formally calling on President Biden to resign from office.”
“It has also been striking that none of the Senate Democrats who served with Vice President Harris have called for her to replace President Biden,” Daines added, saying he had doubts about Harris’s ability to serve as president.
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida
“Let me be clear, if Joe Biden can’t run for re-election, he is not capable of serving as president for the next six months and needs to resign today,” Sen. Scott said in a statement.
“It was painfully clear that Biden wasn’t competent for office going way back to 2021,” Scott wrote. “Democrats laughed when I said Biden should be removed from office after his deadly Afghanistan withdrawal disaster. They’re not laughing now. Over those four years, we have seen immense damage done to our country. Our border is wide-open, inflation is crushing American families, and countless Americans have lost their lives at home and abroad due to the policy decisions of Joe Biden and his ‘border czar’ Kamala Harris.”
“While we welcome the news that one of America’s most destructive presidents will be denied a second term, it changes very little as to the stakes of this election,” he added. “We cannot allow the American dream to be destroyed and replaced with California socialism. Come November, we will defeat the Democrats, elect Donald J. Trump, take back the Senate and the House, and save our country.”
NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson
Richard Hudson, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman, said in a statement, “This is a scandal of historic proportions – our president is incapacitated, Democrats knew, and they lied to the American people to cover it up. Voters will neither forgive nor forget the ultimate betrayal of their trust.”
“Judgment day is coming in November, when Americans will hand down Democrats’ ultimate punishment: Donald Trump in the White House and a larger House Republican majority,” Hudson wrote, adding, “If the president is mentally unfit to campaign, he is mentally unfit to have the nuclear codes. Every House Democrat must now answer: is the president fit to serve the rest of his term?”
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves
“Have you ever seen a politician so strong and talented he made his opponent quit in the middle of the race? I have: Donald J. Trump,” Gov. Reeves quipped on social media.