Another five House Democrats have just joined the growing calls for President Joe Biden to step aside and drop out of the presidential election.
On Friday, four Democrat congressional lawmakers issued a joint statement urging Biden to “pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders.”
The statement was signed by Reps.:
- Jared Huffman (D-CA)
- Marc Veasey (D-TX)
- Chuy Garcia (D-IL)
- Marc Pocan (D-WI)
The lawmakers wrote:
“Mr. President, with great admiration for you personally, sincere respect for your decades of public service and patriotic leadership, and deep appreciation for everything we have accomplished together during your presidency, it is now time for you to pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders.
“We must defeat Donald Trump to save our democracy, protect our alliances and the rules-based international order, and continue building on the strong foundation you have established over the past four years.
“At this point, however, we must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign.
“These perceptions may not be fair, but they have hardened in the aftermath of last month’s debate and are now unlikely to change.
“We believe the most responsible and patriotic thing you can do in this moment is to step aside as our nominee while continuing to lead our party from the White House.”
Veasey is the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus to call for the president to step aside.
The group that has strongly backed Biden in the past.
A fifth House Democrat, Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) separately urged Biden to drop out in an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune.
“It’s time for Joe Biden to pass the torch,” Casten wrote.
“[P]olitics, like life, isn’t fair.
“And as long as this election is instead litigated over which candidate is more likely to be held accountable for public gaffes and ‘senior moments,’ I believe that Biden is not only going to lose but is also uniquely incapable of shifting that conversation.”
The bad news didn’t end there for Biden, however.
On Friday, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) also called on Biden to suspend his presidential campaign.
Heinrich is now the third Democrat senator to publically call on Biden to drop out.
“While the decision to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is in the best interests of our country for him to step aside,” Heinrich said in a statement.
There are now 28 Congressional Democrats who have called on Biden to step aside.
That number represents more than 10% of elected Democrats in Congress.
Behind the scenes, more and more Democrat officials, top donors, and key Biden allies are reportedly urging the president to reconsider his decision to stay in the race.
Should Biden drop out ahead of the Democratic National Committee convention in August, Vice President Kamala Harris is acknowledged to be in the best position to receive the party’s nomination.
However, some Democrats fear she would do no better than Biden and also lose to Trump.
Some Democrats are hoping for a candidate unaffiliated with the current administration to be nominated in an open convention.
Biden has made no public indication that he intends to step aside, and his campaign has forcefully denied all suggestions to the contrary.
“Absolutely the president is in this race, you’ve heard him say that time and again,” Biden Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“I’m not here to say this hasn’t been a tough several weeks for the campaign, there’s no doubt that it has been, and we’ve definitely seen some slippage in support.
“But it has been a small movement.”
However, as Slay News reported earlier, multiple insiders have been reporting that Biden is planning to drop his re-election bid as early as this weekend.
READ MORE – Biden to Drop Out of Race ‘This Weekend,’ Insiders Report
