Historic times as President Biden “stands down”

A party’s presumptive nominee for President has never dropped out so close to the election. But, on Sunday, July 21st, history was made when in the early afternoon, a letter from President Biden was posted on his social media doing just that.

With that, and noticably no mention of VP Kamala Harris being recommended or endorse, within an hour that endorsement came out of the same office, with President Biden putting his full support behind Harris.

Harris followed with her own statement – coming immediately after the legal change in name of the campaign accounts from Biden to Harris:

Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, had several comments, most directed to Biden having never been the right person for the presidency, but that Harris will be easy to defeat.

Calls to resign presidency

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and others such as Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and several Republican Representatives and Senators have released statements basically saying if President Biden is not “fit” to run for re-election, then he should resign immediately. Some have added that this would give American voters the opportunity to “see her in action” as President, which would give them more information on which to vote.

Former Speaker of the House, moderate Joe Manchin has indicated he may re-register as a Democrat and run for President. He has not endorsed VP Harris. Others may jump in on this opportunity, posing the possibility of an open convention.

Questions remain

Did President Biden stay too long in his position, and therefore end his Presidency in a less than ideal way? By not resigning the office, will legislators move to enact the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove him? Even if it failed, which it would be likely to do, the process would be a personal embarrassment.

President Biden has indicated he will speak about his decision later this week when he is feeling better. When the statement was released it was not accompanied with a photo or video, and no one other than an immediate inner circle has seen the President. He was said to have held – probably virtually – a “family meeting”, which is his regular way of informing his large family about decisions impacting them all. Two immediate staff were called to his home in Delaware on Saturday night to help craft the statement. VP Harris was informed, according to her staff, about one minute before the statement was released, as were the Cabinet and senior staff. Other White House staff learned about it when the world learned about it.

The convention is a month away. Now Harris needs to announce her Vice President choice. Democrat leadership, for the most part, are rapidly issuing statements of support for a Harris administration.

If President Biden should resign from his office as President, VP Harris would become President and she would name her VP which would need to be confirmed by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

This is a developing story