Trump and other Republican leaders demand that Biden resign: ‘We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage’

The former president and his running mate, Senator J. D. Vance, have aligned themselves with House Speaker Mike Johnson to demand Biden’s resignation

Donald Trump during a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 20, 2024.Evan Vucci (AP)

When Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he decided to give up running for re-election as president of the United States — with just 107 days left until the November elections — the country was largely unsurprised. However, the Republican Party quickly mobilized, demanding that the incumbent go even further. According to the GOP leadership, if Biden isn’t in a position to run as a candidate, he shouldn’t continue in the presidency, either. His four-year term ends on January 20, 2025.

One of the first to speak was the former president, and now the official presidential nominee of the Republican Party, Donald Trump. On his social media network Truth Social — for the benefit of his 7.4 million followers — he launched one of his typical risqué messages: “Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve — And never was! He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement. All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President, and he wasn’t. And now, look what he’s done to our Country, with millions of people coming across our Border, totally unchecked and unvetted, many from prisons, mental institutions, and record numbers of terrorists. We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

After that initial salvo, the Republican candidate continued posting similarly aggressive messages on Truth Social: “Crooked Joe Biden is the Worst President, by far, in the History of our Nation. He has done everything possible to destroy our Country, from our Southern Border, to Energy Dominance, National Security, International Standing, and so much more,” he said in one post. “He was annihilated in an Earth Shattering Debate, and now the Corrupt and Radical Democrats are throwing him overboard. He was not fit to serve from the very beginning, but the people around him lied to America about his Complete and Total Mental, Physical, and Cognitive Demise. Whoever the Left puts up now will just be more of the same.”

Trump was officially chosen as the Republican Party’s candidate last week during the Republican National Convention, which took place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was also there that he announced his vice-presidential candidate: 39-year-old Ohio Senator J. D. Vance. This Sunday, Vance also spoke out to — once again — demand that Biden not only drop out of the race, but also leave the White House.

In a message on his X profile (formerly Twitter), Vance wrote a message to his 1.4 million followers in a much more moderate tone than the one employed by his running mate: “If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining President? 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.”

Biden’s medical team has released no statements indicating that he is unfit to govern.

Vance also attacked Vice-President Kamala Harris in another message. “Joe Biden has been the worst President in my lifetime and Kamala Harris has been right there with him every step of the way. Over the last four years she co-signed Biden’s open border and green scam policies that drove up the cost of housing and groceries. She owns all of these failures, and she lied for nearly four years about Biden’s mental capacity — saddling the nation with a president who can’t do the job.”

He ended with this: “President Trump and I are ready to save America, whoever’s at the top of the Democrat ticket. Bring it on.” While Biden has endorsed Harris, she still isn’t the formal nominee for the Democratic Party.

While the White House may be in the hands of the Democrats, there are Republicans who wield enormous political power, including Speaker Mike Johnson. In a long statement, he also used harsh terms to demand that Biden vacate the Oval Office: “Having invalidated the votes of more than 14 million Americans who selected Joe Biden to be the Democrat[ic] nominee for president, the self-proclaimed ‘party of democracy’ has proven exactly the opposite. The party’s prospects are no better now with Vice President Kamala Harris, who co-owns the disastrous policy failures of the Biden Administration. As second in command and [as] a completely inept border czar, Harris has been a gleeful accomplice — not only in the destruction of American sovereignty, security, and prosperity, but also in the largest political coverup in U.S. history. She has known for as long as anyone of [Biden’s] incapacity to serve.”

“Regardless of the chaos in the current White House,” Johnson’s statement goes on, “our adversaries around the globe should be reminded that the U.S. Congress, the U.S. military, and the American people are fully prepared and committed to defend our interests both at home and abroad. 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.”

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