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Washington — After U.S. President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race, Republicans collectively called on him to resign immediately, claiming that if he cannot run for re-election, he should not continue to govern.
Republican leadership in Congress and influential figures within the party on Sunday outlined a line of attack against Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden has endorsed to take over the Democratic race in November.
Conservatives have accused Harris of covering up Biden’s “mental decline” and held her solely responsible for U.S. immigration policy, which they have called a “disaster.”
Some top Republicans on Capitol Hill, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, said Sunday they want Biden out of office to ensure he can’t govern if he’s incapable of running for reelection.
“If Joe Biden is unfit to run for President, he is unfit to serve as President. He must resign immediately,” Johnson wrote on his X-Platform account, also attacking Harris directly.
The lawmaker added, “As number two, she has been complicit in the largest cover-up in American history. She knows as well as anyone that (Biden) is unfit” to be president.
The No. 2 Republican in the conservative-controlled lower chamber, Steve Scalise, echoed those thoughts, adding that “all” Biden administration staffers must be held accountable.
“For years, Democrats have been defaming Americans who question Biden’s health. (…) Everyone involved in the cover-up, especially Vice President Harris, must be held accountable,” Scalise stressed.
Elise Stefanik, chairwoman of the Republican Conference, the group that represents members of the party in the House of Representatives, expressed similar language: “Biden must resign immediately. “The Democratic Party is in free fall as it desperately tries to cover up the fact that Biden is in poor health.”
The only Republican leader in Congress who has not replicated the idea is Senate conservative Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been close to Biden throughout his career. In a statement, the senator criticized Democrats for trying to exclude Biden from the nomination.
“Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has been busy in recent weeks trying to extinguish the desire of Americans to participate in primary elections across the country,” wrote McConnell, 82, who announced his retirement from Congress because he will not seek re-election due to his age.
Senator J.D. Vance, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick, also joined the criticism, accusing Harris of being the “worst president” the United States has ever seen.
“For the past four years, she has supported Biden’s open border policies.[…]She is to blame for all the failures and has lied about Biden’s mental capacity for nearly four years,” he wrote in “X.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, an influential Republican, directly criticized Harris’s Biden administration’s management of immigration, calling her “the person in charge of the border.”
Shortly after taking office in 2021, Biden tasked Harris with “addressing the root causes of migration,” with a particular focus on Central America and the so-called Northern Triangle countries.
After days of speculation and pressure from members of his own party, Biden, 81, announced his withdrawal from the presidential race in a letter published in X magazine on Sunday.
(dynamic)
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