Florida Democrats seek unity as Biden drops out; Republicans call on him to resign

Florida Democrats largely praised President Biden’s decision to bow out of the presidential contest on Sunday, heralding it as a new beginning for the party less than four months before the November election.

Their Republican counterparts said he should go one step further and resign altogether.

Biden, 81, announced his exit from the race in a letter on Sunday afternoon. His decision ended a weeks-long crisis in the Democratic Party that was defined by internal disputes and growing calls for the president to pass the torch to a new generation after a floundering debate performance last month that raised concerns about Biden’s age and fitness for office.

Shortly after announcing his exit, Biden threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination, catapulting his second-in-command to frontrunner status in the race to succeed him.

No other candidate has announced their intention to replace Biden on the ballot, but some Florida Democrats began lining up behind Harris within minutes of Biden’s announcement.

State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando, told the Herald/Times over text message that “Vice President Kamala Harris is the clearest choice and has my support.”

“This is the right decision for the American people and the Democratic Party,” Eskamani added by email.

U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz also threw his support behind Harris.

“I hereby endorse Kamala Harris! That’s the tweet,” Moskowitz wrote on X.

Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried tweeted shortly after Biden’s decision to drop out that he would “be remembered as one of the greatest presidents of our lifetimes.”

Fried added: “Now, the Democratic Party must be more united than ever to defeat Donald Trump.”

There is an immediate and pressing question about how the Democratic party will handle the presidential nomination at its convention next month now that Biden has dropped out.

Barry Richard, a Democrat and Tallahassee-based elections expert who has represented Republican candidates like George W. Bush, said that though there is some inherent uncertainty, he believed Biden’s delegates were now “free agents.”

“The fact that he has endorsed Harris doesn’t bind them to Harris though it may have an impact on them,” Richard said.

Fresh start?

Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid offers Democrats something of a fresh start at a time when polling shows former President Donald Trump leading in key battleground states.

Fernand Amandi, a Democratic pollster who worked for former President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign, said that, for all the talk about Biden’s age and fitness for office in recent weeks, Democrats will now be able to raise similar questions about Trump, who is 78 years old.

“We have a brand new race for president,” Amandi said. “The greatest problem that the Democrats had is now the MAGA Republicans’ greatest problem, which is an unfit nominee in cognitive decline who is the greatest threat to American democracy ever known in Donald Trump.”

Other Democrats said Biden’s decision not to seek a second term in the White House was a selfless decision that would give the party its best chance of defeating Trump in November.

“More jobs, lower costs, safer communities, more freedom. That was already the legacy of President Biden,” former U.S. Rep. Val Demings, the 2022 Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, wrote on X. Now, his legacy also includes a stunning act of unselfish patriotism, grace, and decency. I’m proud to support him. We must keep going. Democracy must win on November 5th.”

Former U.S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who’s seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Rick Scott this year, hailed Biden for “putting the good of the American people and our democracy first.” She called on Democrats to rally behind Harris as their new presidential nominee.

“We must follow his example and stand united behind Vice President Kamala Harris and continue to fight for the freedom, democracy, and opportunities that brought so many of us to this incredible nation,” Mucarsel-Powell said in a statement.

Republicans react

Shortly Biden dropped out, former President Donald Trump took to his media platform, Truth Social. He described Biden as “not fit to run for President” and “certainly not fit to serve.”

“He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement,” Trump said. “All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President, and he wasn’t.”

A while later, Trump co-campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, who is from the Jacksonville area, put out a joint statement calling for Biden to leave the White House immediately.

“Biden is a national security threat in great cognitive decline and a clear and present danger to every man, woman, and child in our country,” LaCivita and Wiles said. “Knowing that Joe Biden withdrew from the campaign because of his rapidly deteriorating condition, does Harris believe the people of America are safe and secure with Joe Biden in the White House for six more months?”

Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted that Democrats backing Harris was akin to “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titantic.”

“Kamala Harris was complicit in a massive coverup to hide and deny the fact that Joe Biden was not capable of discharging the duties of the office,” DeSantis said. “She also was the the border czar during the worst border crisis in American history.”

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power said in a statement that “Democrats should be fuming. Their party failed them.”

“Rather than allowing Americans to have their voices heard, they will be forced to carry whatever puppet they elect behind closed doors,” Power said. “Meanwhile, Republicans are united behind President Trump. It doesn’t matter which empty suit they put forward—we will win.”

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, a Naples Republican, slammed what he called Democrats’ “hypocrisy” over Biden’s candidacy, arguing that “the same people who spent years saying President Trump and Republicans are a threat to democracy, just pushed out the sitting president from running for re-election because they don’t think he can win.”

But some Florida Republicans seemed awed by the political moment.

“Parents, I hope you are talking to your children about what is happening in our politics today. We are living in the pages of history,” Erika Donalds, the wife of Florida Congressman Byron Donalds and a leader in Florida’s school choice movement, wrote on X.

“This is a critical chapter in our history,” state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, R-Fort Myers, responded on X.

Former Florida GOP Chair Christian Ziegler, whose ouster by the party when a woman accused him of rape took the political world by storm this year, noted on X that an assassin tried to kill Trump just eight days ago. (Ziegler was not charged with a crime.)

“We are not worthy of the insanity that is this Presidential race,” he wrote.