White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates announced that U.S. President Joe Biden does not plan to resign prematurely following the announcement of his withdrawal from the election race. According to his statement, Biden intends to "complete his term" as president. Earlier, Biden stated that he does not plan to continue in the presidential election scheduled for November 5. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris also confirmed her intention to file for candidacy for the Democratic Party in the upcoming presidential election, as reported by TASS.
More than 10 Republicans called on Biden to resign on Sunday after he ended his re-election campaign, stating that his unwillingness to continue campaigning raises questions about his ability to govern. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator JD Vance, the Republican candidate for vice president alongside Donald Trump in the November elections, along with other lawmakers, urged the current president, who is 81 years old, to step down.
In his statement, Biden insisted that he will finish his term, which ends on January 20, 2025, and criticized his fellow Democrats' calls for his resignation as "ridiculous." Conversely, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who follows Biden in the presidential line of succession after Vice President Kamala Harris, argued that President Biden should resign "immediately." Johnson's statement included: "If Biden is unfit to run for president, he is unfit to be president. He must resign immediately."
Vance wrote on X: "If Biden has ended his re-election campaign, how can he justify remaining president?" Others, including Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin, called for the Biden administration to invoke the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to remove him from office. It is unlikely that the Biden administration, composed of officials chosen by the president himself, would do so.
A source familiar with the matter indicated that President Biden intended to stay in the 2024 presidential race until Saturday evening, before informing senior advisers on Sunday afternoon that he would withdraw. The source stated: "Last night, the message was to move forward with everything as quickly as possible. Around 1:45 PM today, the president told his senior staff that he had changed his mind."
On Sunday, President Biden decided to withdraw from the upcoming U.S. elections, following a loss of confidence among his Democratic peers regarding his physical and mental capability to compete against Republican candidate Donald Trump. Biden stated, "I will focus on fulfilling my presidential duties until my term ends." He ended his attempt to run for the 2024 presidential election after a disastrous debate that raised doubts about his fitness to serve additional years in office. For his part, former U.S. President and Republican candidate for the next presidential elections, Donald Trump, stated to CNN that he believes defeating Harris would be easier than defeating Biden. Trump added, "The United States has suffered greatly under Biden's administration; he does not deserve to run for a second term."
