Mass. Republicans react to Biden’s decision

GOP leaders in Massachusetts said that President Biden made the right call in dropping out, but projected confidence in Donald Trump and questioned Biden's ability to even finish out his current term.

After President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he would be dropping out of the 2024 race, reactions are flooding in from every corner of the political world. In Massachusetts, Republican leaders are projecting confidence.

“Whether it’s Biden or another Democrat, their scare tactics won’t distract from their failed policies. From the economy to border security, Dems have fallen short. Americans want a shift, and we’re confident that no Democrat will measure up to the Republican ticket,” the Massachusetts GOP said in a statement on social media.

The state’s Democrats heaped praise on Biden after his decision. Vice President Kamala Harris has already secured the endorsements of Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, Attorney General Andrea Campbell, Reps. Katherine Clark, Ayanna Pressley, and Lori Trahan, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

Geoff Diehl, the former state representative who ran against Healey, said on social media that he is “glad” that Biden withdrew from the race but warned about what kind of example this could set.

“Our country needs a strong leader & he had no mandate to proceed,” Diehl said in a statement, referring to Biden. “Be aware, though, that a sitting President who won the primary process, just had a reelection campaign canceled by a handful of party insiders. An atrocious precedent.”

On X, Diehl went on to repost commentary from a number of high-profile people associated with the GOP. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, is reportedly donating about $45 million a month to help Donald Trump’s campaign. Musk said that Democrats were choosing to “discard the old puppet” for a new one with better electability. Trump, Musk said, “is not a puppet.”

Diehl also reposted accusations from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claiming that Harris was “complicit in a massive coverup” to hide Biden’s decline. In another post, former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard said that neither Biden nor Harris are “calling the shots.” Instead, she claims, a “deep state” led by Hillary Clinton and a “cabal of warmongers” are working to erode American liberty.

Massachusetts GOP Chair Amy Carnevale said that Biden’s decision was the right one.

“We’ve been saying for months now that he was not fit to continue in a second term. So it’s the right thing to do,” she told WCVB.

Republicans are “agnostic” as to who the Democratic nominee is, she added, while defending the 78-year-old Trump’s vigor by referencing his response to the assassination attempt.

Thomas Hodgson, the former Bristol County sheriff who serves as chairman of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign in Massachusetts, called on Biden to resign the presidency as well.

“The Democrat Party has been hiding what everybody else has seen for a long time: He’s not capable of being president for another term, and frankly he isn’t capable of being president right now. He is cognitively challenged, as everybody knows, and so for us — for America — that’s not a good thing,” Hodgson told The Fall River Herald News.