Republicans seize on Joe Biden announcement to demand he step down as president immediately

GOP pols and others on the right floated spurious claims about the president’s fitness to remain in office following his announcement on Sunday that he would step aside

President Joe Biden passed the torch on Sunday to VP Kamala Harris (Getty Images)

More than five hours before Joe Biden announced he would abandon his re-election run and endorse Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination, vice presidential candidate JD Vance was already posing disparaging “what-ifs” about the sitting president’s capacity for the job.

“If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining President?” Donald Trump’s 39-year-old running mate posted on social media. “Not running for re-election 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.”

On Sunday afternoon, Biden formally announced that he was jumping out of the 2024 presidential race, prompting more Republicans to jump on the bandwagon in questioning his fitness to remain in office.

Former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard has gone all-in on ‘deep state’ conspiracy theories (Getty Images)

House Speaker Mike Johnson claimed in a statement that “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,” he charged.

Montana Senator Steve Daines said he was “formally calling” on Biden to resign, insisting that if he’s “no longer capable of running for reelection, he is no longer capable of serving as President.”

And GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina posted, “If Joe Biden does not have the cognitive ability to seek reelection, he does not have the cognitive ability to serve the remainder of his term. Tomorrow I will introduce a resolution calling on Kamala Harris to invoke the 25th amendment and assume the duties of acting President.”

Meanwhile, former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who has since shifted her allegiance to the GOP, contended that Machiavellian forces forced Biden’s decision, claiming, spuriously, on X that Vice President Kamala Harris “is the new figurehead for the deep state and the maidservant of Hillary Clinton, queen of the cabal of warmongers. They will continue their efforts to engulf the world in war and taking away our liberty.”

To be sure, Biden didn’t drop out because he copped to being unfit, but, rather, he dropped out in the face of pressure from his own party, which did not believe the 81-year-old president had the public support to beat Trump in November.

The internal backlash against a Biden re-election run gained steam after the commander-in-chief’s disastrous debate performance against Trump, the twice-impeached former president who has since been convicted by a New York jury on 34 counts of falsifying business records, been found civilly liable for rape by a second set of Big Apple jurors, and is still facing multiple federal and state charges—although a recent Supreme Court decision has temporarily thrown a wrench into the works—over allegations involving his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Pictures showed blood on Donald Trump’s right ear and part of his face after shots were fired during the rally (Gene J Puskar/AP) (AP)

Following an assassination attempt last weekend which led to reports that Trump might soften his tone after a near-death experience, the ex-POTUS took to Truth Social to take a series of ugly swipes at Biden, calling him “crooked” and claiming he “was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve — And never was!”

“We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly,” Trump wrote. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

In response to the news that Biden had stepped aside and endorsed Harris, Trump’s most rabid fans quickly flooded the internet on Sunday to express their concurring opinions. A credulous Elon Musk—who recently pledged $45 million a month to get the 45th president reinstalled as the 47th—began posting and reposting on X.

“My smartest friends, including those living in the San Francisco Bay Area who have been lifelong Dems, are excited about Trump/Vance,” Musk wrote in one post, without naming names.

Tesla CEO and Trump fan Elon Musk claimed his “smartest friends” are “excited about Trump/Vance.” (Getty Images)

Conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer jumped into the fray, floating the absurd notion that Trump’s recent shooting, which bloodied his ear but did not do any significant damage, was a plot by anti-Trumpers in positions of power.

“And just like that, the media stopped talking about the Trump assassination attempt,” Loomer posted on X. “Do you not see what is happening? This is all planned to cover up the Deep State’s plot to kill Trump under Biden. We need accountability. We can talk about the Dysfunctional Democrat party later.”

Others piled on, feigning outrage about Harris’ record while continuing to take disingenuous shots at Biden. Donald Trump Jr., the ex-president’s adult son, posted, “Kamala Harris owns the entire leftwing policy record of Joe Biden. The only difference is that she is even more liberal and less competent than Joe, which is really saying something.”

And Lauren Boebert, the congresswoman recently escorted out of a theater performance in her home state of Colorado, claimed, “They set Joe up before the debate even took place. They forced him to do more interviews in the past 3 weeks than he has done in 48 years in office. Locking in the narrative, Joe’s puppet strings were slashed.”

Conversely, former Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican who chaired the House committee investigating Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt, expressed her support for Biden’s decision to put country over party.

“The framers of our Constitution knew that our republic would endure only if our presidents have the character and honor to put duty ahead of self interest,” she posted on X. “President Biden deserves our gratitude for his decades of service to our nation and for his courageous decision today.”