Former President Trump said Biden “was not, is not and has “never” been eligible to run for president.
Republican presidential candidates reacted to Biden’s shock announcement Sunday afternoon that he was ending his reelection campaign.
“He’s the worst president in the history of our country,” Trump said in a phone interview with Fox News Digital on Sunday afternoon. “We’ve never had a worse president.”
“He’s unfit to be president,” Trump continued, “so I ask the question: Who’s going to run this country for the next five months?”
Trump also posted to his Truth Social account on Sunday afternoon.
“Crooked Joe Biden is not and never has been qualified to run for President or hold the office of the presidency!,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social page. “He only got to office through lies, fake news, and never leaving his basement.”
Biden withdraws from 2024 rematch with Trump, ends bid for second term in White House
“Everyone around him, including his doctors and the media, knew he was not fit to be president, and that was true,” Trump said.
“Now think of what he has done to our country: millions of people crossing our borders totally unchecked and unscreened, many from prisons, psychiatric hospitals and record numbers of terrorists,” he wrote. “We will suffer greatly as a result of his presidency, but the damage he has caused will be quickly repaired.”
He added: “Let’s make America great again!”
Trump’s comments came a week after he survived an assassination attempt and just days after he was formally nominated as the Republican presidential nominee for 2024.
Biden announced Sunday he was dropping his 2024 reelection campaign amid growing pressure from Democratic colleagues in Congress, big donors and Hollywood stars after a disastrous performance in last month’s debate.
The unprecedented announcement comes as a growing number of Democrats have begun publicly calling for Biden to step down and party leaders are reportedly working to convince the Republican nominee in November’s general election that Biden cannot win against former President Trump, who he defeated to win the White House four years ago.
When President Biden and former President Trump faced off in a crucial re-debate in the 2024 presidential election in late June, the contrast between the two men couldn’t have been starker, a body language expert told Fox News. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
“Serving as your president has been the greatest honor of my life,” Biden said in the open letter. “While I intended to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and my country to step aside from office for the remainder of my term and focus on fulfilling the duties of my presidency.”
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Biden said he plans to formally address the nation about his decision later this week.
“Now, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all of those who worked so hard for my reelection,” Biden wrote. “I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being a tremendous partner in all of this work, and I want to express my sincere gratitude for the trust and confidence you have placed in me.”
Biden added, “Today, I believe what I have always believed: There is nothing America can’t do when we work together. And we must never forget that we are the United States of America.”
Biden’s COVID-19 diagnosis on Wednesday came just days after a series of television interviews and campaign rallies in which he stressed he would remain in the race. But the interviews did little to reassure his supporters and gave critics, including on the left, further evidence that Biden is no longer up to the job.
Biden delivered a powerful welcoming speech to world leaders at the NATO summit in Washington DC last week, which was an opportunity for him to prove that he is fit to continue in his current term and that he is willing and able to lead the country for the next four years.
Polls have consistently shown former President Trump holding a large lead over President Biden. (Getty Images)
At one point, it seemed as though Biden might weather a surge in calls for him to drop out of the race after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced they would support Biden’s candidacy.
But Biden, long known for his tendency to make gaffes, continued to stumble, including a glaring misstep on the world stage at the NATO summit, when, on live television, he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “Putin,” a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who invaded Zelensky’s Ukraine and sparked more than two years of hellish war.
The question of whether Biden would end his campaign remained a top political story into last weekend.
President Joe Biden, accompanied by NBA Miami Heat player Jamie Jaquez and First Lady Jill Biden, speaks during a Cinco de Mayo reception in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 6, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnick/Getty Images)
But two major back-to-back incidents — an assassination attempt at a rally for former President Trump in western Pennsylvania on Saturday and Trump’s nomination of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate at the Republican National Convention on Monday — temporarily halted the enthusiasm for Biden for a few days.
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But the political crisis around the president was quickly reignited after California Democratic Senate candidate Adam Schiff called on Biden to stop campaigning on Wednesday and top Democrats including Schumer, Jeffries and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were reported to have had frank discussions with Biden.
Biden’s shock announcement came at the toughest moment in his campaign for a second term that has been going on for more than a year. Doubts about Biden’s viability as a top Democratic contender in 2024 began to seep into the mainstream after his halting speech and awkward answers were on full display to a national audience during a presidential debate in June. With Trump In Atlanta.
