Speaker Johnson calls on Biden to resign after the president announces he won’t seek reelection

By Clare Foran and Morgan Rimmer, CNN

(CNN) — House Speaker Mike Johnson called on President Joe Biden to resign “immediately” in the wake of Biden’s announcement that he will not seek reelection.

“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately,” Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said in a statement Sunday afternoon.

Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him on Sunday, in a major and historic move that upends the presidential race.

“Having invalidated the votes of more than 14 million Americans who selected Joe Biden to be the Democrat nominee for president, the self-proclaimed ‘party of democracy’ has proven exactly the opposite,” Johnson said.

As speaker of the House, Johnson is second in the line of presidential succession behind Harris.

The White House said that Biden is “looking forward to finishing his term” when asked about some congressional Republicans who are calling on Biden to step down from the presidency. Biden also said in his initial statement that he will complete his term.

“President Biden inherited an economy in freefall, a skyrocketing violent crime rate, and alliances in tatters from his predecessor. He turned that around to deliver the strongest economic growth in the world and the lowest violent crime rate in nearly 50 years, while making NATO bigger than ever. He looks forward to finishing his term and delivering more historic results for the American people,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement to CNN.

Bates continued: “That includes continuing to lower costs, create jobs, and protect Social Security while standing against the MAGAnomics agenda that would worsen inflation and drive us into recession. And he’ll keep fighting to protect Americans’ freedoms from radical abortion bans and attacks on the rule of law.”

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell in a statement similarly accused the Democratic Party of “trying to upend the expressed will of the American people in primary elections across the country.” In contrast, however, McConnell did not call on Biden to resign the presidency.

While other Republican senators and members of Congress call for Biden to resign and accuse Democrats of disregarding their own primary results, GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska praised the president for his decision.

“I respect President Biden’s decision to act in the best interest of the country by stepping aside in the 2024 presidential election,” she said.

GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said that she plans to introduce a resolution on Monday that calls on Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment and assume Biden’s duties.

“If Joe Biden does not have the cognitive ability to seek reelection, he does not have the cognitive ability to serve the remainder of his term,” she said.

GOP Rep. Chip Roy introduced a similar amendment the day after the CNN Presidential Debate.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Betsy Klein, Micheal Williams and Owen Dahlkamp contributed to this report.

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