By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
It took less than a week for the president of the United States to end his re-election campaign and for Democrats to replace him as their presumptive nominee.
Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves, a Republican, questions whether President Joe Biden ended his candidacy willingly.
“Well, I was just very surprised, very surprised that the president decided to pull out,” Graves tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “One day he said he was in and there was no getting him out and he said his cognitive ability was as good as it’s ever been. And then the next thing you know, he’s pushed out and they’ve crowned a new candidate.”
Graves backs up his statement by pointing out Biden had insisted he was staying in the race.
“And then he meets with a few party leaders and the next thing you know he announces he’s quitting the race,” Graves says. “There’s no other explanation than he was pushed out.”
Graves says the exit of Biden and elevation of Harris is a stunning turnaround.
“The other side likes to claim that President Trump is a threat to democracy. Yet, they threw the democratic process completely out and did not have an open forum to pick a new candidate,” Graves says.
Graves calls it hypocritical.
But fellow Republican, Eastern Kansas Congressman Jake LaTurner, says the switch makes sense.
“If I were a Democrat, that’s what I would’ve wanted to happen,” LaTurner tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “President Biden clearly didn’t have the energy or the mental faculties to continue this campaign, let alone be president for another four years.”
Should Biden resign as president?
“I don’t know the answer to that,” LaTurner says, adding it will depend on whether he has the mental capacity to continue as president, “but Kamala Harris being the president is not something that I am interested in now or in the future.”
LaTurner says he’s not sure how these events might impact the November elections. LaTurner is not running for re-election.
Graves, who is running for re-election, says the switch might actually help Republicans in November.
“I think, ironically, that it’s better for maintaining the majority in the House and taking the majority in the Senate,” Graves says. “It’ll be interesting to see. There’s a lot of water to cross under the bridge between now and November.”
Graves does say it’s extraordinarily late in the political process to choose a new candidate for president.
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