Republicans urge Biden to leave White House now as Trump lashes out
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Donald Trump pressed for Joe Biden to step aside with immediate effect, as he called his rival “the single worst president in history”.
Trump telephoned CNN, the news channel, minutes after Mr Biden announced that he would “stand down” from the US presidential race to hit out at his successor in the White House.
He followed that up with a post on his social media platform Truth Social in which he claimed the president was “not fit to run… and not fit to serve”, suggesting he thought Mr Biden should leave office sooner rather than later.
It will pile the pressure on Mr Biden to quit now rather than waiting until the January inauguration of the winner of the November presidential election.
JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, also called on Mr Biden to go, writing on X, formerly Twitter: “How can he justify remaining president? 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.”
Mr Biden, 81, will continue his presidential duties and is expected to meet Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister in Washington on Tuesday.
In his call to CNN, minutes after Mr Biden had announced his exit from the race, Trump declared: “He goes down as the single worst president by far in the history of our country.”
He also boasted to the news channel that he was confident that Kamala Harris, the vice president now in the driving seat to win the Democratic nomination, would be easier to defeat than Mr Biden would have been.
Then on Truth Social, in a rallying fundraising call to his supporters, Trump did not hold back as he repeated his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
He wrote: “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.”
Trump claimed the medical establishment as well as the “mainstream media” had covered up the president’s frailties, which had become increasingly evident in recent weeks and were brought to the fore by Mr Biden’s disastrous showing at their first television debate.
He wrote: “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!
It is unclear whether Mr Biden’s decision to step aside will give a further boost to the Trump campaign or provide the Democrats with a fresh impetus to defeat the Republican contender.
The calls for Mr Biden to go now were reinforced by senior Republicans. Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House, declared: “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.”
Mr Johnson said the Democrats’ “prospects are no better now with Vice President Kamala Harris” who he said “co-owns the disastrous policy failures of the Biden administration”. He also accused the vice president of being “a gleeful accomplice… in the largest political coverup in US history. She has known for as long as anyone of his incapacity to serve”.
Mr Biden, who mistakenly announced Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, as “President Putin”, was forced out of the public sphere after contracting Covid. Reports suggested the virus had badly affected his physical health, leaving him coughing and hoarse.
With his campaign on pause, the void was filled by a growing clamour for him to quit the presidential race, with polls showing him being beaten by Mr Trump in the battleground states.
The visit of Mr Netanyahu will focus attention on whether Mr Biden should stay in office. There had been suggestions he would remain until after the visit to prevent Israel’s prime minister from having the satisfaction of being in Washington when he quits.
The two men have barely spoken and Mr Netanyahu is reported to be holding out in Israel for a Trump presidency, which he considers to be more supportive of his all-out war with Hamas in Gaza.
But in an official statement, Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, thanked Mr Biden “for his friendship and steadfast support for the Israeli people over his decades long career”. He said Mr Biden was the first US president to visit the country in a time of war, calling him a “true ally of the Jewish people” and a “symbol of the unbreakable bond between our two peoples”.
