At least 25 Democrat members of Congress are set to call on Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race in the coming days, while a pair of Senators also look to defect.
With a Democrat aide saying ‘the dam is broken,’ they plan to call for the president to quit ‘if he seems shaky in coming days,’ as a second aide claims some moderates planning to write an open letter to Biden to protect themselves in swing districts.
It comes as two Senators appear set to add themselves to the three House members already breaking with Biden.
Centrist Joe Manchin, who is leaving Washington in January, was set to publicly break with Biden before anyone else before Democrat insiders convinced him not to, with a party inside claiming ‘nobody wants to be the first one to knife Julius Caesar.’
Tammy Baldwin, a more progressive Senator than Manchin who faces re-election in the swing state of Wisconsin, will not be joining Biden as he campaigns in her hometown of Madison Friday, holding a separate event instead.
Biden insiders continue to insist that the president, 81, will carry on against Donald Trump despite his disastrous first debate just five days go.
However, his support appears to be crumbling among fellow Dems, as Maine’s Jared Golden, Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Alaska all either told Biden to drop out or said they believed he would lose to Trump on Tuesday.
Those defections are all in addition to this collection of House members, particularly moderates in swing districts commonly referred to as ‘frontliners,’ set to break with Biden soon.
Whether Biden continues his 2024 bid for president after his halting debate performance against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is largely his decision, Democrats and political strategists have said.
But Biden is under pressure. Some donors have called for him to step aside, and other Democrats are worrying openly that he is not equipped to beat Trump in November.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll taken after the debate showed one in three Democrats think Biden should end his re-election bid, while another Ipsos poll showed Michelle Obama as the only Democrat currently beating Trump.
U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett became the first congressional Democrat to call for Biden to withdraw from the presidential race on Tuesday. He told NBC News in an interview that he hoped other Democratic lawmakers would follow his lead.
‘It looks like the dam has broken,’ the second aide said.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi emphasized Biden’s multiple legislative accomplishments during an interview with MSNBC Tuesday but said it was legitimate to ask whether his debate performance was a one-night thing or a broader health problem. She said Trump should be given the same scrutiny.
‘I think it’s a legitimate question to say, ‘Is this an episode or is this a condition?’ And so when people ask that question, it’s legitimate, of both candidates,’ Pelosi said.
Immediately after the debate, Pelosi had shown strong support. ‘Joe Biden´s decision to go forward is a decision that we will all embrace because of the record he has and the performance that will come with it,’ she said then.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday that Biden did not have an ‘episode,’ just a bad night.
Vice President Kamala Harris, asked in a CBS News interview about Doggett’s demand, said: ‘Look, Joe Biden is our nominee. We beat Trump once and we’re gonna beat him. Period.’
Biden, speaking at a campaign event in Virginia on Tuesday evening without a teleprompter, blamed his performance on a lack of sleep and said his campaign had raised $38 million since the debate.
‘The fact is that you know, I wasn´t very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple times, going through around 100 time zones … before … the debate. Didn´t listen to my staff and came back and nearly fell asleep on stage,’ he said. ‘That’s no excuse but it is an explanation.’
Some Democrats suggested Biden should be thinking about the broader party’s future.
‘He has to be honest with himself,’ Democratic Representative Mike Quigley, a moderate from Illinois, told CNN on Tuesday.
‘It’s his decision. I just want him to appreciate at this time just how much it impacts, not just his race, but all the other races coming in November.’
U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn, the Democrat often credited with securing Biden’s nomination in the 2020 presidential race, told MSNBC Tuesday he would support Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee if Biden stepped aside.
Golden, a Maine Democrat, predicted on Tuesday that Trump would win the election, as did Washington state Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
The president and his campaign are scrambling to bolster support. Biden will hold a meeting with Democratic governors virtually and in person at the White House on Wednesday and speak to lawmakers this week, White House officials said.
One of the House Democratic aides said members were disappointed about the lack of outreach thus far.
Doggett told NBC News he had asked the White House to speak personally with Biden about his call for him to drop out, but had not heard back from him.
Biden’s campaign held difficult phone calls on Sunday and Monday with important funders who questioned his plans to stay in the race.
Asked Tuesday why Biden had not done more media interviews or press conferences after his debate raised questions, Jean-Pierre pointed to his visit to a Waffle House in Atlanta on the evening of the debate and subsequent interactions with supporters.
Biden is scheduled to do an interview with ABC this week and plans to hold a news conference at the NATO summit next week. The Democratic Hill aide said a lot was riding on the ABC interview, with lawmakers looking to see that he can handle rapid-fire questions and not just orchestrated campaign appearances.
Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign said it and its Democratic allies raised $264 million in the second quarter, including $127 million in June and a record ‘grassroots’ fundraising haul on the day of Biden’s debate.