Vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) demanded that President Joe Biden step down from office after members of the Democratic Party convinced him to end his re-election bid over concerns about his mental acuity.
Vance, who former President Donald Trump chose to be his running mate on the first day of the Republican National Convention this month, said that if Biden cannot run for office due to cognitive concerns, he should not continue serving as president.
“Everyone who called on Joe Biden to *stop running* without also calling on him to resign the presidency is engaged in an absurd level of cynicism,” Vance wrote on the X platform. “If you can’t run, you can’t serve. He should resign now.”
In an address last month, however, Biden said he plans to serve the duration of his term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2025. Anger and frustration mounted inside Biden’s inner circle as well as with the president himself amid a cacophony of calls for him to drop out after a dismal debate performance last month and a collapse in polling.
According to sources who spoke to NBC News, Biden felt “isolated, frustrated, and angry. He considered his allies to have betrayed him during a time of need. The network quoted someone within the inner circle who said of Biden: “He’s really pissed off.”
The outlet said Biden spent the weekend ahead of his withdrawal with several close advisers and family, but Vice President Kamala Harris, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, and campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon were not among them.
The report also said that multiple advisers warned that Biden had no path to victory. “It became a no-win situation, a self-fulfilling prophecy,” former White House official Cedric Richmond said Sunday. Without money and support, “it’s impossible to win, and he’s always put country and party first.”
Loyalists to Biden also were frustrated that members of the Democratic Party called on him to step aside instead of rallying behind him, the outlet reported.
Trump is leading Vice President Kamala Harris by three percentage points in a recent national head-to-head survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports.
“Trump came out ahead 49% to 46%. That amounts to a slight gain for Harris, who was lagging behind Trump 45% to 49% in Rasmussen’s poll last week. When third-party hopefuls were added to the mix, Trump came out on top again with 47% to Harris’ 45%, followed by independent contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at 4%, and all others at 1% or less, per Rasmussen,” the New York Post reported.
“Rasmussen’s findings are an outlier among recent national polling. The conservative-leaning firm has often been at odds with other top pollsters. In 2016, it was among the closest firms to the final result. Harris is averaging a two-point lead over Trump in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of a national five-way race. In a two-way race, her lead slips to 1.5 percentage points,” the Post added.
The race for battleground state polling has also become much more competitive, with several firms obtaining varying results in the major races.
Harris is still behind Trump, though.
Trump is predicted to receive 287 Electoral College votes to Harris’ 251 in the battleground state estimate by RealClearPolitics, taking all of the big swing states with the exception of Wisconsin.
Lately, polling has been good for Trump.
Trump appears to have retaken his lead in polling after an initial surge in support for Vice President Kamala Harris following President Joe Biden’s decision to end his reelection campaign in July.
Harris has enjoyed a solid month of favorable reporting in most mainstream media outlets — all of which lean to the left on their editorial pages — while Trump’s coverage has been proportionally negative. According to Axios, previous polling by the Cook Political Report published last week showed Harris leading Trump in Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Similarly, a New York Times/Siena College poll released last week found Harris with a narrow lead in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
However, a more recent survey by Navigator Research, published Tuesday, indicates that the race is essentially tied in Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Individually, Trump leads Harris by one percentage point in Arizona (46% to 45%) and by two points in Pennsylvania (46% to 44%), while the other three states are in a dead heat.
The Navigator survey is consistent with the RealClearPolitics Polling average of battleground states, which also includes Nevada and Georgia.
