The daughters of former President Lyndon B. Johnson have praised President Joe Biden’s decision to exit the race, calling him a “patriot without peer.”
Johnson exited his race for reelection as he was facing historic levels of unpopularity due to the Vietnam War. Many are now looking to Johnson’s fate, the last time an incumbent president did not run for a second term, as clues for what happens next in the 2024 presidential race.
Johnson’s daughters, Luci Baines Johnson and Lynda Johnson Robb, who were familiar with their father’s decision, said they were “proud” of Biden.
“President Biden, you are a patriot without peer. Once more you have given all a person can for our country. As the daughters of another president who gave his all for America, we are so proud of you again as we have always been,” Johnson’s daughters wrote in a statement Sunday.
Similar to Biden in the past few weeks, Lyndon B. Johnson wrestled with what to do about the looming presidential race in the face of increasing pressure. The former president, stuck with a war he did not start, ended up not seeking reelection as the walls seemed to close in on him. His decision resulted in the election of former President Richard Nixon, a Republican.
Biden’s decision to exit the race comes much closer to Election Day, now three and a half months out, than Lyndon B. Johnson’s did. Johnson exited the race in March 1968, with many more months left until the election.
The timing of Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision not to run again surprised many, according to Texas Monthly.
“I want you to write the closing for my State of the Union,” the former president told Horace Busby, an aide who had helped write his most important speeches. “When I get through, I’m going to surprise the hell out of them. I’m going to reach back in my pocket and pull out this statement you’re going to write.”
Lyndon B. Johnson ended up finding the timing of the State of the Union to be inappropriate but used his surprise ending tactic in another speech. In an address to the nation about bombing in North Vietnam, the former president used the end of his speech to say, “Accordingly, I shall not seek, and will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”
He kept the end of that speech under wraps as well.
“While the messenger is on the way out, you redo what you did in January and send it back down here,” Lyndon B. Johnson said about how to ensure the end of the speech would be kept secret. “Don’t mark ‘eyes only, secret, classified’ on the envelope because that way, twenty-five people will read it before I see it. Just put ‘L.B. Johnson.’”
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Similar to the former President, the timing of Biden’s announcement came largely as a surprise. Biden made his announcement on social media without a live or taped address to the nation. He reportedly did not tell even the closest of his aides about his decision until minutes before his social media account posted it.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden wrote in his letter. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
