AUSTIN — Texas GOP officials wasted no time pinning responsibility for the nation’s border struggles – not to mention the weight of a divisive presidential election – on Vice President Kamala Harris after President Joe Biden endorsed her to replace him atop the Democratic ticket.
“I think I will need to triple the border wall, razor wire barriers, and National Guard on the border,” Gov. Greg Abbott said on social media about a half-hour after Biden’s Sunday announcement.
Reaction from Republican leaders in one of the national party’s most critical states was swift and targeted in the moments after Biden withdrew from the race. They repeatedly lobbed criticisms of Harris’ performance as vice president, accused Democratic insiders of conspiracy, and called for Biden to leave the White House immediately.
“If Pres. Biden is not competent to run for reelection, he should step down from the presidency,” U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, posted on X.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas simply posted a photo of former president Richard Nixon, who resigned the White House in 1974.
In his announcement, Biden said he was leaving the race to focus his energy on his presidential duties and did not indicate that he plans to step down before a new president is inaugurated next January.
Even after slamming Harris, who would replace Biden if the president stepped down, Abbott suggested that an immediate change in the White House would be better for national security.
“If Biden is unfit to run FOR the presidency, he is unfit to run THE presidency,” Abbott wrote. “American security is at risk both at home and abroad. A change in the oval office is essential – immediately – to ensure the safety of Americans and the security of our country.”
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Republican and former head of the Texas House GOP, wrote, “Unfit to run. Unfit to serve.”
House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican who was challenged by his party’s right flank in this year’s primaries, said “the Biden-Harris Administration is unfit for four more years in the White House” but stopped short of calling on Biden to immediately leave office.
Instead, he called the development an opportunity for the fractured state GOP to reunite for the benefit of down-ballot Republicans on the November ballot.
“Bowing out and replacing the presumptive nominee this late in the game has created chaos and division among their ranks over the past several weeks,” Phelan said in a statement. “Republicans, in contrast, must unite as a party to elect strong conservative leaders up and down the ballot this November, which is where my focus remains.”
State GOP party officials called Sunday’s development a sign that Biden was unfit to lead and that his party was in shambles.
“The Democrat Party now must override the will of their voters and plunge into chaos. America needs and deserves stability with a positive vision for our future,” the party posted on X.
The strong likelihood that Harris could take Biden’s place at the top of the ticket made her the prime focus of Republican attacks.
Cornyn called Harris a “failed Border Czar” and posted that if her party thinks she’ll solve the top issue on GOP voters’ minds, “they’re dreaming.”
“Under her ‘leadership’ criminals and terrorists stream across our wide-open border & fentanyl continues to kill thousands of innocent Americans,” Cornyn posted. “If she can’t fix the border, how is she going to run the country? Kamala Harris is even more radical, more extreme and less competent than Joe Biden.”
Abbott also theorized that a June debate between Biden and GOP nominee Donald Trump was scheduled early in the campaign “to force Biden to step aside.”
“Today’s announcement might not have happened without that disastrous debate,” Abbott wrote on X.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a fellow Republican, suggested the debate was an effort by former President Barack Obama to maintain his influence in the White House and see a “fourth term.”
“The June debate was a hit job on Biden by his own party; humiliating him was step one to run him out,” Patrick said on X. “There was no need for Biden to debate that early, as I said at the time. They were with him every day. They knew how badly he would perform.”
Miller circulated a photo illustration posted by Ted Nugent, a ‘70s-era musician and big supporter of Texas Republicans, that showed Obama’s face superimposed on Harris’ portrait.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton echoed a post by Donald Trump Jr. calling Harris “even more radical” than Biden but kept his own reaction simple. “Trump for the win!” he posted.
State GOP lawmakers also called for Biden’s ouster.
State Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, invoked the 25th Amendment, suggesting Biden be removed from office by his vice president and Cabinet.
Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, accused Democrats of hiding the president’s “incapacity” from voters and “duping” them into selecting him as their nominee, calling it “one of the most egregious acts of voter suppression.”
“That said, now that the truth has finally been brought to light, he must resign immediately for the security and future of the United States of America,” he said.
State Rep. Ryan Guillen, a Rio Grande Valley Republican who was first elected as a Democrat, said Biden’s decision to step down sets “a terrible precedent.”
“From now on, each time a party’s nominee is losing, a select few who control the party will choose a new nominee, subverting the American people and our democratic process,” Guillen wrote on social media.
GOP lawmakers also turned their attention to Harris.
State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, called her “the most incompetent, failed VP in history,” while state Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, questioned how long she’s known that “Biden was unfit to continue running for President and kept quiet about it.”