When it comes to President Joe Biden’s decline, some Democrats are in denial, or are at least pretending to be. A few representatives, however, have acknowledged the problem with Biden’s age, with some are even calling for him to step down after the disastrous debate. The Democratic Party is currently a mess, and the general reaction from some senior White House staff has reportedly been, “What the hell is happening?” CNN host Jake Tapper tweeted that Democratic governors held a call yesterday afternoon, organized by Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, with no staff and no one from the Biden, though it is unclear what, if any, decisions were made.
Here’s a breakdown of the Democratic lawmakers who have publicly suggested Biden is unfit to run.
Mike Quigley
Mike Quigley is a Democratic representative serving in Illinois’s 5th congressional district. “I think [the president’s] four years are one of the great presidencies of our lifetime, but I think he has to be honest with himself,” Quigley said in a CNN interview on Tuesday. When asked to clarify whether or not he would be open to a new candidate Quigley said: “I think what I’m stressing is that it has to be his decision… It wasn’t just a horrible night.”
Jamie Raskin
Raskin serves as a Democratic representative for Maryland’s 8th congressional district. “Obviously, there was a big problem with Joe Biden’s debate performance,” he said in an interview with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi. There were “very honest, and serious and rigorous conversations taking place at every level of our party,” Raskin said.
Sheldon Whitehouse
Whitehouse is a Democratic senator from Rhode Island. He told a local TV station Monday that he barely recognized Biden as he struggled to respond to Trump. “I think like a lot of people I was pretty horrified by the debate,” he told Providence 12 News. “The blips of President Biden and the barrage of lying from President Trump were not what one would hope for in a presidential debate.”
Lloyd Doggett
Doggett is from Austin, Texas and serves as a Democratic US congressman. “President Biden has continued to run substantially behind Democratic senators in key states and in most polls has trailed Donald Trump,” Doggett said in a statement Tuesday. “I had hoped that the debate would provide some momentum to change that. It did not. Instead of reassuring voters, the president failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies.”
Doggett’s announcement is unique in that he specifically called for Biden’s withdrawal from the ticket in an official written statement.
James Clyburn
Clyburn is a congressman in South Carolina and a top ally of the Biden White House. Clyburn said Biden should “stay the course” after the debate, but also that Biden had a “poor performance” at the debate, calling it “strike one.” Clyburn was asked Friday if he thinks there’s a better Democrat to communicate the party’s platform, and he responded: “No. There’s no better Democrat.”
In a recent MSNBC interview, though, Clyburn said of Kamala Harris: “I would support her if [Biden] were to step aside.” And when asked if the party should work around Harris, Clyburn said: “No. This party should not, in any way, do anything to work around Ms. Harris. We should do everything we can to bolster her whether she’s in second place or at the top of the ticket.”
There may be more potential Biden-deniers to come. For the time being though, most prominent Democrats seem to be committed to supporting Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate, including Chris Coons, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, Raphael Warnock, Gavin Newsom and John Fetterman.
