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Republican lawmakers react to Biden’s decision to drop out of presidential race
President Biden’s unprecedented announcement on Sunday that he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race prompted reactions from both sides of the aisle.
Here’s how Republican Senators, members of Congress and high-profile party members are reacting to the president’s decision to leave the race just weeks before the Democratic Convention, handing his endorsement to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Former President Donald Trump
In a post to his social media platform, former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, lambasted Mr. Biden.
“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for president, and is certainly not fit to serve – And never was!” Trump wrote. “He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement.”
Trump added that “we will suffer greatly because of his presidency,” but that Republicans “will remedy the damage.”
In a phone call with CNN minutes after Biden announced his exit from the 2024 race, former Trump said, “He goes down as the single worst president by far in the history of our country.”
Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana
House Speaker Johnson said Mr. Biden’s announcement posed “an unprecedented juncture in American history” and claimed the president’s decision invalidated the votes of millions of Americans who selected Biden as the Democratic nominee.
“The party’s prospects are no better now with Vice President Kamala Harris, who co-owns the disastrous policy failures of the Biden Administration,” Johnson said in a statement, calling on Mr. Biden to resign immediately.
“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President,” Johnson wrote, adding, “November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.”
Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise claimed that Democratic party leaders had “absolutely no respect for their own voters.”
“After lecturing others about democracy, they just forced Joe Biden off the ticket, trashing the primary choice of 14 million of their own voters,” Scalise said in a statement.
“For years, Democrats and their partners in the media maligned Americans who questioned the President’s fitness based on what they saw with their own eyes as conspiracy theorists,” Scalise wrote. “Every single one of these people – especially Vice President Harris – who participated in this cover up must answer for their involvement.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York
Rep. Stefanik, the highest-ranking Republican woman in the House, also claimed that Mr. Biden’s announcement shows he isn’t fit to currently serve as president.
“If Joe Biden can’t run for re-election, he is unable and unfit to serve as President of the United States,” Stefanik said in a statement, urging Mr. Biden to “immediately resign.”
“Every elected Democrat in America owns Joe Biden’s failed and feckless record causing the border crisis, Bidenflation, and chaos and weakness around the world,” she wrote. “President Trump will win this November to save America.”
Sen. Steve Daines of Montana
Sen. Daines formally called on Mr. Biden to resign, saying the president “is no longer capable of serving as President.”
“Being President is the hardest job in the world, and I no longer have confidence that Joe Biden can effectively execute his duties as Commander-in-Chief,” Daines said in a statement. “It is out of concern for our country’s national security that I am formally calling on President Biden to resign from office.”
“It has also been striking that none of the Senate Democrats who served with Vice President Harris have called for her to replace President Biden,” Daines added, saying he had doubts about Harris’s ability to serve as president.
NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson
Richard Hudson, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman, said in a statement, “This is a scandal of historic proportions – our president is incapacitated, Democrats knew, and they lied to the American people to cover it up. Voters will neither forgive nor forget the ultimate betrayal of their trust.”
“Judgment day is coming in November, when Americans will hand down Democrats’ ultimate punishment: Donald Trump in the White House and a larger House Republican majority,” Hudson wrote, adding, “If the president is mentally unfit to campaign, he is mentally unfit to have the nuclear codes. Every House Democrat must now answer: is the president fit to serve the rest of his term?”
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Phil Lesh, bassist and founding member of The Grateful Dead, died Friday, a producer who worked with him confirmed to CBS News. He was 84 years old.
A post on his Instagram account said Lesh “passed peacefully this morning.”
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“He was surrounded by his family and full of love. Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love. We request that you respect the Lesh family’s privacy at this time,” the post said.
One of America’s most enduring musical groups, The Grateful Dead was formed as a quintet in California in 1965, according to their official website. Jerry Garcia, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Bob Weir Bill Kreutzmann and Phil Lesh made up the original band members. The band signed to Warner Brothers in late 1966, releasing their self-titled debut later that spring.
The band went on to tour for the next half-decade — an era, the band said was their most creatively fertile. Somea members left, some died, and others were added, but the original magic of Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia stayed intact through some of their most tumultuous years. Garcia died in 1995.
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The Grateful Dead toured extensively garnering legions of fans around the world for their ability to play music and “jam.”
In 2007, the band received the Lifetime Achievement award from the Recording Academy.
The band broke the record for the most Top 40 albums to chart on the Billboard 200 in 2024. Even though the band disbanded in 1995 following the death of singer Jerry Garcia, its archival albums’ popularity pushed the music into the Top 40. Forty-one of the band’s 59 entries in the Top 40 have happened since 2012.
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