Business leaders in Utah and across the country continue to post reactions to President Joe Biden’s weekend announcement that he would be stepping away from his pursuit of a second term in office.
While some responses to the news included pointed partisan commentary, many simply signaled their support of Biden’s decision in the aftermath of a disastrous performance during the June 27 debate with former President Donald Trump, one that left party leaders reeling and spurred widespread calls for the incumbent to end his pursuit of four more years in office.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Larry H. Miller Company CEO Steve Starks expressed his thanks that Biden was stepping down along with hopes that a “new generation” of leaders will step up to the call of national public service.
“I am grateful that President Biden is dropping out,” Starks tweeted. “He wasn’t in the position to serve and neither he nor the country should be put in these circumstances. In the years ahead, I hope we see a new generation of leaders emerge who have the character and vision to lead America.”
Ryan Smith, tech entrepreneur and owner of the Utah Jazz and the newly minted Utah Hockey Club, shared Biden’s mea culpa letter and commended the president for making a difficult decision.
“This is the correct move and good leadership,” Smith tweeted. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy.”
In a statement posted to its website on Sunday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce offered a politically neutral acknowledgement of, and gratitude for, Biden’s decades of public service.
“We commend and thank President Biden for his legacy of service to our country and extend to him our best wishes,” the chamber’s statement read. “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce looks forward to continuing to engage with leaders across the political spectrum to forge solutions and advance policies that will make the American Dream a reality for all.”
Looking for stability
Salt Lake Chamber President/CEO Derek Miller also stayed well away from any partisan assessments in a Deseret News interview Monday afternoon, but noted that Biden’s decision to step down could help calm the associated tumult and have a positive impact on a business sector that values surety over chaos.
“What the business community needs the most and craves the most is certainty and stability,” Miller said. “And we’ve had anything but that over the last several weeks with all the ‘will he, won’t he’ conjecture.
“Anything that provides certainty and stability for the business community and the overall community, is a good thing. And when I say it’s good, that’s not in any way a political statement.”
Miller said the stable and high-performing economy in Utah has proven to be durable in the face of outside impacts but isn’t immune to upheaval, and he hopes the remainder of election season and transition to new leadership is one that isn’t accompanied by negative national economic changes.
“Our business community is doing well, relatively speaking,” he said. “We have a strong state economy, job growth, healthy in-migration ... new business moving to the state and a low unemployment rate. We just want to see a national economy that doesn’t take us down, doesn’t make waves that impact the good thing we have going.”
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted his endorsement of Trump just moments after the former president was injured in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, 10 days ago. In a Sunday posting on X, Musk shaded Biden’s withdrawal announcement, bragged that he knew it was coming and took a shot at Democrats.
“I heard last week that he would resign at this exact time and date,” Musk tweeted. “It was widespread knowledge in DC. The real powers that be are discarding the old puppet in favor of one that has a better chance of fooling the public. They fear Trump because he is not a puppet.”
Some other reactions from U.S. business leaders, per a roundup by Fortune: