13 more Democrats, including Pelosi allies, are calling for Biden to get out of the 2024 election.
The number of Biden critics on Capitol Hill now stands at 35, or more than 10% of the combined Democratic caucuses in the House and Senate.
'When, not if': Pressure is mounting on Biden to step down in the 2024 race
WASHINGTON — More than a dozen Democratic members of Congress on Friday joined a growing chorus of lawmakers calling on President Joe Biden to step aside as the party's nominee, bringing the total number of Democrats on Capitol Hill who want someone else at the top of the ticket to 35.
New critics include close allies of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and a fourth senator.
Senator Sherrod Brown, who is running for reelection in Ohio this fall, became the fourth Senate Democrat to call Biden to leave the race, joining Senators Peter Welch of Vermont, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, and Jon Tester. She faces a tough reelection bid in Montana.
The latest announcements in the House of Representatives come from some of the president's core support circles. Rep. Mark Veasey, D-Texas, became the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus — whose leaders campaigned with Biden this week in Nevada — to call for Biden to step down.
In a joint statement, Veasey and three other House Democrats — Rep. Jared Huffman of California, Chuy Garcia from Illinois, and Mark Pocan, R-Wis.- praised Biden's decades of public service but said it was now time for the 81-year-old president to "pass the torch" to give Democrats their best chance of beating Republican nominee Donald Trump in November.
Garcia is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, whose chair is Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., who also campaigned with Biden in Nevada this week and whose political action committee endorsed Biden on Friday. Other Hispanic Caucus members who earlier called on Biden to step down are Reps. Raul Grijalva of Arizona and Mike Levin of California.
Meanwhile, Pocan is the chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, formerly known as the LGBTQ+ Caucus, and a former co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, whose most prominent members — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. - They urge Democrats not to get rid of Biden.
Huffman is also a progressive ally of Pelosi and represents the neighboring San Francisco Bay Area.
Another close Pelosi ally in the Bay Area, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., also joined the group of critics on Friday, releasing a letter she sent to Biden on Thursday evening. Lofgren cited her work on the House January 6 committee, warning that Trump "remains as grave a threat to the constitutional order and the rule of law as he was on January 6, 2021, when he incited the insurrection."
"We must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign," Veazey, Garcia, Pocan, and Hoffman said of Biden in their joint statement. "These perceptions may not be fair, but they have hardened in the wake of last month's debate and are now unlikely to change."
"We believe the most responsible and patriotic thing you can do now is step down as our nominee while continuing to lead our party from the White House. Democrats have a deep and talented group of young leaders, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, whom you have elevated and empowered," the quartet continued. "And you prepared him for this moment." "Passing the torch would radically change the course of the campaign. It will reinvigorate the race and infuse Democrats with enthusiasm and momentum ahead of our convention next month.
Separately, Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois called Biden to withdraw in a Chicago Tribune op-ed published Friday. "As long as this election...is litigated over which candidate is most likely to take responsibility for public gaffes and 'moments that matter,' I believe Biden will not only lose but will also be uniquely unable to change that conversation," she said.
Rep. Greg Landsman, an Ohio Democrat and one of Republicans' top targets in 2024, said Friday in a lengthy X thread that "there's too much at stake" in 2024 for Biden to continue as the Democratic nominee.
On Friday afternoon, veteran Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., urged Biden to withdraw. She quickly endorsed Harris to replace him on the ballot and for Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a former member of the House of Representatives, to be his running mate.
McCollum was quickly followed by Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., former chair of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, and first-term Reps. Morgan McGarvey, D-Kentucky, and Gabe Vasquez, D-New Mexico. , who flipped the GOP seat in the 2022 midterms and faces a tough reelection this fall.
The new batch of critics means that more than 10% of Democrats in the House and Senate - 35 out of 264 - are calling on Biden to leave the race. The 13 people who released statements on Friday represented the largest number of Democratic critics in a single day since the June 27 debate debacle.
However, Biden has repeatedly said he is not going anywhere and has secured the nomination with the support of 14 million Democratic primary voters.
Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon acknowledged during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday that it was a "Tough few weeks" for Biden since the debate and that there had been "some slippage in support." However, she said Biden still had a way to defeat Trump and would go on the campaign trail next week once he recovered from Covid.
You've heard directly from the president over and over again. "He is in this race to win; he is our candidate, and he will be our president for a second term," she said.
In a statement issued later today, Biden campaign spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg noted that many Democrats stand with Biden as the nominee.
"While the majority of the caucus and the party's diverse base continue to stand with the president and his historic record of delivering for their communities, we recognize that the urgency and stakes of defeating Donald Trump mean others feel differently," Ehrenberg said.
"Unlike Republicans, we are a party that accepts — even celebrates — different opinions, but in the end, we will surely come together to beat Donald Trump next November.
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