ATLANTA — Following calls to drop out of the race, President Joe Biden ended his bid for reelection on Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic presidential nominee.
The election was anticipated to be a historical face-off between the current president and former President Donald Trump. Since the news was announced, several Georgia lawmakers have endorsed Harris in her bid for the presidency.
However, 11Alive also spoke to Georgia Republicans about their thoughts on Biden's decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
Reaction to President Biden's announcement:
For example, U.S. Representative Mike Collins said it was not shocking and that it felt as if everybody kind of knew it would happen.
"It’s certainly bad timing on their part, but in a way, they created their own storm. So you know they’re sitting in this position because you can’t tell me they didn’t already know and weren’t just covering for the President’s health situation over many months."
Georgia Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon also said it was not surprising.
"Not really surprising at the end of the day because Democrats are so desperate to hold onto power by any means necessary nowadays," McKoon said. "Joe Biden was just sinking like a rock, and so they’ve taken this unprecedented step historically of the sitting president, in July, standing aside in favor of a candidate to be named -- maybe Vice President Harris, maybe someone else."
The former President of Atlanta Young Republicans, Allen English, agreed with this sentiment.
"I think a lot of people saw this coming. A year ago, I think we started hearing people talk about this."
Does this change Republicans' message heading into November?
In terms of what's next for Republicans now that a Democratic president has ended his bid for reelection, McKoon said he believes that President Biden should resign immediately and not finish his term.
"It opens up whole new lines of attack for us to be talking about," McKoon said. "First and foremost, Joe Biden needs to resign. He needs to resign today. If he’s not fit to run for this office, he’s certainly not fit to continue to serve in this office."
English said that he believes that any messaging from Republicans and the Trump campaign will remain the same despite having a different rival running against the former president.
"Do you want four more years of what we’ve had for the last four years, or do you want to go back to call it the end of 2019, early 2020?" English said, later adding, "The messaging is still, if it is Kamala Harris, it’s she was a part of this ship that’s now going down to the bottom of the ocean. We have a lifeboat, a new ship everyone can get on, and we can keep sailing the way we were going, or we can stay on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s ship and sink to the bottom of the ocean."
Collins agreed that the message would remain the same because they've been discussing policy.
"We have been talking about policy, policy, policy," Collins stated. "The messenger may change, but the message that they’re projecting doesn’t change and hasn’t changed."
Thoughts on people calling for the president to resign:
Although President Biden ended his campaign, there have still been calls for him to resign and not complete his term. Rep. Collins said that people need to know what is happening with Biden's health.
"If he’s too ill to run, then he’s probably too ill to serve," Collins said. "So I think there are a lot of unanswered questions that the people in this country need to know exactly what his condition is and what his health condition is."
McKoon believes Biden needs to resign since he has made the decision to drop out of the race and said that would be the right move for the country.
"As an American, I’m concerned about the continuity of our government. Someone competent needs to be in charge of our government from now until January," McKoon said. "And it’s obvious that Joe Biden is not that person. He has recognized it himself. And he wants to sort of have his cake and eat it too, continue to be president while acknowledging he can’t continue to be president, so he needs to resign. Whether that helps us or hurts us politically, that’s what’s right for this country."