Hours after President Joe Biden announced his exit from the presidential race, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday appreciated working with him for 22 years in the White House, saying he delivered historic accomplishments during his term.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he wrote, “It has been -- and remains --the honor of my life to work for @POTUS for the past twenty-two years. He has restored US leadership around the world and delivered historic accomplishments as President. I look forward to building on that record with him over the next six months."
After withdrawing his nomination from the 2024 US presidential elections, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the party's candidate to face Republican Donald Trump in the November polls.
It is pertinent to note that Biden who at 81 is the oldest person ever to have occupied the Oval Office. He would remain in the presidency until his term ended on January 20, 2025, and would address the nation this week.
The move dramatically reshapes a White House contest that has been shaken repeatedly in the last month. Biden's disastrous June 27 debate performance drove his fellow Democrats to urge him to drop out.
Last week, the US President has not been seen in public since testing positive for COVID-19 last week and was isolated at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Republicans, led by their vice presidential nominee, Senator J.D. Vance, have called for President Joe Biden to resign following his decision not to run for re-election in November. They argue that his choice to withdraw from the race indicates he is not "mentally fit" to continue serving as commander-in-chief.
“If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining President? Not running for reelection would be a clear admission that President Trump was right all along about Biden not being mentally fit enough to serve as commander-in-chief. There is no middle ground,” Vance said.
“Joe Biden has been the worst President in my lifetime and Kamala Harris has been right there with him every step of the way. Over the last four years, she co-signed Biden's open border and green scam policies that drove up the cost of housing and groceries. She owns all of these failures, and she lied for nearly four years about Biden's mental capacity--saddling the nation with a president who can't do the job,” he said," he added.
