Minutes after President Joe Biden announced he was withdrawing from the presidential race on Sunday, Republicans were shifting their electoral strategy and treading carefully to entice Democrats into making what they believe is a mistake.
In the immediate hours after Biden dropped out, the first principle for Republicans seemed to be “do no harm.” Sources said Republicans don’t want to scare Democrats off from nominating Kamala Harris as their nominee, and they don’t want to take the focus off the current disarray in the Democratic Party.
With that in mind, the safest GOP response to Biden’s withdrawal from the race seemed to be reinforcing the existing strategy. Donald Trump and Republicans had an extensive game plan to beat Biden, and a big part of that plan was highlighting how Democrats were pushing Biden — a candidate who most voters believed was too old to run for president — to call into question the judgment of Democrats.
“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement. “He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.”
Trending
“Let me be clear, if Joe Biden can’t run for re-election, he is not capable of serving as president for the next six months and needs to resign today,” posted Sen. Rick Scott on X.
“If Joe Biden can’t run for re-election, he is unable and unfit to serve as President of the United States,” Rep. Elise Stefanik posted after Biden’s announcement. “He must immediately resign.”
Republicans have been trying to call attention to the perception that Biden is too old to be president, with Rep. Chip Roy even pushing a resolution for Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Biden from the Oval Office.
For most Democrats, squaring the circle of how they could call on Biden to withdraw from the race while not calling on him to resign hasn’t been difficult. They’ve said their calculation on Biden rejecting the nomination is more about a belief that he can’t win rather than a belief that he’s not up to the job for another six months, though Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez actually did call on Biden to resign when she said he also shouldn’t run for reelection.
But with Biden dropping out, Republicans are keenly aware that there are stronger and weaker candidates who can replace him — and Republicans close to Trump seemed more than happy to see Democrats immediately moving toward nominating Harris.
“She’s a far-left liberal,” a source close to Trump told NOTUS. “Gonna crush her and hold her to every insane thing she has ever said about gender ideology, energy, etc. She’ll be lucky if she comes within 5 points of DJT in any Rust Belt state.”
One way Republicans think they can actually help Harris secure the nomination is by highlighting the chaos of an upcoming Democratic National Convention compared to the unity of the Republican National Convention.
Expect Republicans to point out how Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis spoke in support of Trump at the GOP convention, contrasting that with a “bloodbath of knifing and infighting” at their convention, in the words of one source.
Other sources didn’t want to say anything about Harris, concerned that they might dissuade Democrats from nominating her.
Republicans all the way up to Trump were careful not to go scorched-earth on Harris after Biden’s announcement. Trump’s own statement, posted on Truth Social less than 45 minutes after Biden withdrew, didn’t even mention Harris. Instead, he focused entirely on the president.
“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve - And never was!” Trump said. “He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement. All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President, and he wasn’t - And now, look what he’s done to our Country, with millions of people coming across our Border, totally unchecked and unvetted, many from prisons, mental institutions, and record numbers of terrorists. We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
While Republicans were careful not to hit Harris too hard, sources indicated they do have a plan if she is the nominee. Expect Trumpworld to point to Harris’ past positions and stances from when she was a senator and running for president in 2019. And Republicans will also remind voters of a key reason why Biden is unpopular: his policies.
The Trump campaign will attempt to tie high inflation, ongoing wars and a weak southern border — all issues that Biden has struggled with in polling — back to his vice president.
“You remind people she was the vice president of the United States,” a GOP strategist told NOTUS. “It’s not like she’s a random person without a history here. She is the Biden-Harris administration.”
Of course, not every Republican was so careful about not hitting Harris. The pro-Trump PAC MAGA Inc. has already released an ad blaming Harris for problems at the border and inflation.
“[Biden and Kamala] created this mess; they know Kamala owns this failed record,” the ad says.
The PAC is in the process of getting the ad up on TV in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.
—
Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.
Authors
