Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) has become the first elected Democrat to go public with a call for President Joe Biden to withdraw his bid for the presidential election.
In a Tuesday statement, Doggett says Biden has “failed” to defend his record.
He argues that the president proved to voters that he is not the man for the job during last week’s historically disastrous debate.
The congressman asserted that he supports Biden and respects what he achieved for his party during his first term.
However, Doggett warned that “too much is at stake” for the president to run for re-election.
Doggett said that “many Americans have indicated dissatisfaction with their choices in this election.”
“President Biden has continued to run substantially behind Democratic senators in key states and in most polls has trailed Donald Trump.
“I had hoped that the debate would provide some momentum to change that. It did not,” Doggett said.
“Instead of reassuring voters, the president failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies.”
“Our overriding consideration must be who has the best hope of saving our democracy from an authoritarian takeover by a criminal and his gang,” he continued.
“Too much is at stake to risk a Trump victory — too great a risk to assume that what could not be turned around in a year, what was not turned around in the debate, can be turned around now.”
“President Biden saved our democracy by delivering us from Trump in 2020,” he added.
“He must not deliver us to Trump in 2024.”
Amid his call for Biden to withdraw, Doggett reflected on the “painful” decision made by former President Lyndon Johnson not to seek re-election to the White House in 1968.
“I represent the heart of a congressional district once represented by Lyndon Johnson,” the Texas lawmaker said.
“Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw.
“President Biden should do the same.
“While much of his work has been transformational, he pledged to be transitional.”
Doggett claimed the president “has the opportunity to encourage a new generation of leaders from whom a nominee can be chosen to unite our country through an open, democratic process.”
“My decision to make these strong reservations public is not done lightly nor does it in any way diminish my respect for all that President Biden has achieved.” he concluded.
“Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw.
“I respectfully call on him to do so.”
INBOX: Rep. Lloyd DOGGETT (D-Texas) becomes the first sitting Democratic lawmaker to publicly call on BIDEN to withdraw from the 2024 race.
"Rep. Doggett Calls on President Biden to Withdraw"
Doggett has served in the House since 1995. pic.twitter.com/EH9JStCsiq
— Mychael Schnell (@mychaelschnell) July 2, 2024
Doggett’s remarks come less than a week after Biden’s disastrous debate against President Donald Trump.
Speaking with a raspy voice and delivering rambling and incoherent answers, Biden struggled during many portions of the debate.
Biden’s uneven and halting performance grabbed the vast majority of headlines from the debate.
His behavior has sparked a new round of calls from political pundits, publications, and some Democrats for the president to step aside as the party’s standard-bearer.
Top Biden allies have pushed back against such talk as they defended the president and targeted Trump for allegedly “lying” during the debate.
On the day after his debate performance, Biden sought to address Democratic Party panic.
“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” Biden, at 81 the oldest president in the nation’s history, told cheering supporters at a Friday afternoon rally in the crucial battleground state of North Carolina.
“Folks, I don’t walk as easy as I used to.
“I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to,” Biden acknowledged.
“I don’t debate as well as I used to.
“But I know what I do know.
“I know how to tell the truth,” he falsely claimed.
“I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job.
“I know how to get things done. And I know, like millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down you get back up.”
In a statement, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Communications Director Jack Pandol said:
“The cowards in the Democratic Caucus have spent every day after the debate in witness protection, too afraid to say what they’re all thinking.”
“Americans remember House Democrats were complicit in covering up and gaslighting the public about the president’s condition, and voters are primed to punish them in November,” Pandol added.
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