Republicans say Biden should resign immediately after historic campaign exit: ‘Not fit to serve’

Republicans called for President Joe Biden’s resignation and launched immediate attacks on his presumed heir, Vice President Kamala Harris, after the 81-year-old’s historic announcement to end his reelection bid. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson led the GOP’s calls for Biden to step down from office on Sunday afternoon.

“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately,” Johnson said in a post to X following Biden’s announcement. 

Top Republicans continued the flurry of calls for Biden to resign in posts to social media, citing the president’s “declining” mental capacity as grounds for his resignation. 

“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,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the No. 3 Republican in the House, said in a post to Truth Social on Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) ridiculed Democrats for what he called the hypocrisy of conceding concerns about Biden’s mental acuity after years of labeling “Americans who questioned the President’s fitness based on what they saw with their own eyes” as “conspiracy theorists.” 

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) called Biden’s decision “overdue” in a post to X, saying he’s “pointed out for two years that President Biden’s mental capacity has been declining,” while Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) wrote, “If Pres. Biden is not competent to run for reelection, he should step down from the presidency.” 

Their words came on the heels of a statement Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential candidate, made this morning, warning that Biden must resign immediately if he ended his campaign.

“If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining President?” Vance asked in a post to X. 

“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,” Vance continued. 

Across the board, Republicans attacked Democrats for waiting this late in the game to stop Biden’s bid for a second term. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) worried in a statement to X that “the Democratic Party” is “trying to upend the expressed will of the American people in primary elections across the country,” while Johnson slammed the Left for “forc[ing] the Democrat nominee off the ballot, just over 100 days before the election.”

As Biden fielded calls for his immediate resignation, Harris was also launched into a conservative blitz.

Donald Trump Jr. immediately attacked a likely Harris candidacy in a post to X. “Kamala Harris owns the entire leftwing policy record of Joe Biden,” the former president’s son said. “She was put in charge of the border and we saw the worst invasion of illegals in our history!!!”

Johnson criticized Harris’s record along similar lines. “The party’s prospects are no better now with Vice President Kamala Harris,” he said Sunday, calling the  second in command “a completely inept border czar.” 

Meanwhile, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy also shifted his criticism from Biden to Harris and other potential candidates who could mount a bid for the White House. “We’re not running against a candidate. We’re running against a system,” he warned in a post to X. As some Democrats push to hold a potential open convention next month, Harris could face challengers to her party’s nomination as some on the Left question her ability to win in November.