Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he thinks vice-president Kamala Harris will be easier to defeat in November’s election than president Joe Biden, who earlier in the day stepped aside as his party’s candidate.
CNN said the Republican former president made the comments shortly after Mr Biden announced his decision. Mr Trump also later attacked Mr Biden on social media, saying that Mr Biden was unfit to continue serving as president.
Mr Biden ended his re-election campaign on Sunday after fellow Democrats lost faith in his mental acuity and ability to beat Mr Trump. Mr Biden endorsed Ms Harris to replace him as the party’s candidate. Mr Biden had faced growing doubts about his re-election chances after a weak and faltering performance in a televised debate against Mr Trump late last month.
On his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said Mr Biden “was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve.”
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Other top Republicans, including House of Representatives speaker Mike Johnson, also said Mr Biden was not fit to serve as president and finish his term if he was stepping aside as the Democratic presidential candidate. Mr Johnson explicitly called on Mr Biden to resign.
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Mr Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, said: “We will suffer greatly because of his [Biden’s] presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly.”
Mr Trump and Mr Biden had been mostly tied in polls, but after the debate some polls showed Mr Trump narrowly ahead of the president in a match-up for the November elections.
The Trump campaign had already begun discussions about how it would redeploy campaign resources for the possibility of Mr Biden’s dropping out, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Publicly, Trump campaign advisers and allies have been telling reporters they will tie Ms Harris to Mr Biden’s record in office, particularly on immigration and inflation.
Mr Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr, said on social media that Ms Harris “owns the entire left-wing policy record of Joe Biden.”
Elsewhere, there were generous tributes for the US president. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement: “His decision of course was not easy, but he once again put his country, his party, and our future first.”
There was also praise from former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who last week said the president had a decision to make on his future. She said of Mr Biden: “His legacy of vision, values and leadership make him one of the most consequential Presidents in American history.”
In a statement posted on social media, former US president Barack Obama said: “Joe understands better than anyone the stakes in this election – how everything he has fought for throughout his life, and everything that the Democratic Party stands for – will be at risk if we allow Donald Trump back in the White House and give Republicans control of Congress.”
British prime minister Keir Starmer said: “I know that, as he has done throughout his remarkable career, President Biden will have made his decision based on what he believes is in the best interests of the American people.”
Taoiseach Simon Harris said: “The world has changed since President Biden’s victory in 2020 and we have had to face extraordinary challenges from a global pandemic to the return of war to the continent of Europe with the horrific full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia”. He added: “President Biden has been a voice for reason, effective multilateralism and shared solutions.” – Reuters