© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
KTPR 89.9 - Stanton will be off-air for a short time today for broadcast tower inspection.

LBJ's daughters call Biden 'patriot without peer' for dropping out

President Lyndon Johnson family poses at LBJ ranch near Johnson City, Texas, Jan. 3, 1964. Left to right are daughter Luci Baines, Mrs. Lady Bird Johnson, President Johnson, and daughter Lynda Bird. (AP Photo)
Uncredited
/
AP
President Lyndon Johnson family poses at LBJ ranch near Johnson City, Texas, Jan. 3, 1964. Left to right are daughter Luci Baines, Mrs. Lady Bird Johnson, President Johnson, and daughter Lynda Bird. (AP Photo)

A sitting president has never dropped out of a race as close to Election Day as Joe Biden.

The last time an incumbent president announced he wouldn’t run for reelection was Texas’ Lyndon Baines Johnson. Many are now looking to his decision 56 years ago for comparison.

Two who are intimately familiar with the fateful decision in 1968 are LBJ’s daughters, Luci Baines Johnson and Lynda Johnson Robb.

“President Biden, you are a patriot without peer,” wrote the pair in a release to media on Sunday afternoon. “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,” the pair wrote.

Their father, who rose to prominence from the abject poverty that ensconced much of the Texas Hill Country, was driven by intense ambition. The decision to drop out came after mounting pressure of the unpopularity of the Vietnam War.

The decision from Biden to step away from the race has again rocked a presidential election but comes after a disastrous debate performance by the sitting president and an assassination attempt on his opponent Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.

The day after the assassination attempt, Biden postponed his planned visit to the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

The path forward after LBJ’s decision towards a new candidate was clearer — with significant time for primary campaigning. Biden’s choice to step away and endorse his campaign running-mate Kamala Harris has many questioning whether the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month will be an open one or an anointing of Biden’s pick.

TPR was founded by and is supported by our community. If you value our commitment to the highest standards of responsible journalism and are able to do so, please consider making your gift of support today.

Paul Flahive can be reached at Paul@tpr.org