Vance Demands Biden Step Down: ‘If You Can’t Run, You Can’t Serve’

Vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) is demanding that President Joe Biden step down from office after members of the Democratic Party convinced him to end his reelection 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 calling 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 earlier this week, however, Biden said he plans to serve out the duration of his term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2025.

During an Oval Office address on Wednesday, Biden told the American public that “the defense of democracy is more important than any title” and that he plans to serve the remainder of his term.

“I draw strength, and find joy, in working for the American people. But this sacred task of perfecting our union is not about me. It’s about you. Your families. Your futures. It’s about ‘We the People,’” Biden said.

“I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That is the best way to unite our nation,” Biden added.

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.

“Here is a man who has always talked about dignity,” NBC quoted what it said was a longtime Biden ally as saying. “And what was happening to him in a very public setting was undignified. Where does the president go to get his dignity back?”

CNN analyst Bakari Sellers said that he had been in contact with several Democratic lawmakers and operatives who were angry at the way Biden’s exit from the race played out, per Fox News.

“My phone is blowing up with people who are pissed off, and the reason they’re pissed off is because they feel like people from on high pushed Joe Biden out the door,” he said.

“A text that I just got from a friend was like, ‘If they pushed Joe Biden out the door, what are they going to do with Kamala Harris?’ They will probably try to push her, too,” he added.