Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) told followers in an X post on Saturday that he thinks President Joe Biden should resign if he drops out of the race.
“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. “If you can’t run, you can’t serve.”
“He should resign now,” he concluded.
In another post from Friday, Vance also wrote, “if Joe Biden doesn’t have the cognitive function to run for re-election, then he certainly doesn’t have the cognitive function to remain as Commander-In-Chief.”
Vance has previously said that former President Donald Trump was “unfit for our nation’s highest office” in a 2016 opinion piece entitled “Why Trump’s Antiwar Message Resonates with White America” published in The New York Times.
Vance’s call for Biden to resign comes as new reports signal Biden may be preparing to exit the race.
Biden has denied those reports and insists he is mentally fit to serve and continue his election bid.
He told George Stephanopoulos during a prerecorded interview that he believes he is fit to run, adding he “wouldn’t be runnin’ if I didn’t think I did.”
Biden has also said he would only drop out of the race if the “Lord almighty” told him to do so, the polls said he had no path to victory, or he came down with a serious illness.
On his X account, White House spokesman Andrew Bates has consistently denied any suggestion that Biden would be exiting the race or resigning.
Bates rebuked reporting that Biden’s family was going to apply pressure on the president to drop out, writing, “Not true. Keep the faith,” in reaction to a Politico article that reported such on Friday.