Democrats have been freaking out for days about President Joe Biden’s terrible debate performance last Thursday night. The White House and the Biden campaign have sought to tamp down those concerns and keep party officials, donors and the public from bailing on Biden — and they have largely managed to keep elected Democrats from publicly turning on the president. Until Tuesday.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas today became the first elected Democratic official to publicly call for Biden to pull out of the presidential race after his dreadful debate performance against former President Donald Trump.
“I represent the heart of a congressional district once represented by Lyndon Johnson. Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw. President Biden should do the same,” Doggett said in a statement.
A progressive who has been in Congress since 1995, Doggett thanked Biden for his service and said he had hoped the debate would swing momentum in the election toward Biden. “It did not. Instead of reassuring voters, the President failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies.”
Other elected Democrats have reportedly continued to express alarm over Biden’s performance and concern that it could hurt down-ballot candidates.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island told WPRI Monday that he was “pretty horrified” by both Biden and Trump at the debate and called on the president and his campaign to make clear whether “this was a real anomaly and not just the way he is these days.”
Similarly, Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois told CNN Tuesday morning that Democrats have to be honest with themselves that Biden’s debate showing “wasn’t just a horrible night.” He emphasized, though, that it was Biden’s decision whether to continue or not. “He clearly has to understand,” Quigley said, “his decision not only impacts who’s going to serve in the White House the next four years, but who’s going to serve in the Senate, who’s going to serve in the House and it will have implications for decades to come.”
And Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, whose support in 2016 was instrumental to Biden’s winning the Democratic nomination and the presidency, told MSNBC that he will support Vice President Kamala Harris if the president were to “step aside.”
Other Democrats have grown frustrated by Biden campaign staff and surrogates who have pushed back aggressively on any questions about the president’s fitness for another term. “I really do criticize the campaign for a dismissive attitude towards people who are raising questions for discussion. That’s just facing the reality that we’re in,” Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont told Semafor in a Monday phone interview. “But that’s the discussion we have to have. It has to be from the top levels of the Biden campaign to precinct captains in the southside of Chicago.”
In an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the questions about Biden were justifiable. "I think it's a legitimate question to say, is this an episode or is this a condition?" she said. "When people ask that question, it's completely legitimate — of both candidates."
Pelosi told MSNBC that she’s been hearing mixed opinions from Democrats about Biden’s continued candidacy, but she recommended that Biden do a couple of “no holds barred” interviews with “serious journalists” to let the American people see him. “I think it is essential for them to do that,” Pelosi said.
Rep. Jared Golden, a centrist Maine Democrat who represents a district that Trump won in the past two presidential elections, wrote in an op-ed in The Bangor Daily News that Biden’s poor showing was not a surprise and that, while he does not plan to vote for him, “Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m ok with that.” Golden wrote that he rejects the idea that Trump poses a unique threat to American democracy and that lawmakers will have to work with his and hold him accountable.
The bottom line: Democratic concerns about Biden haven’t been assuaged over the past five days. The Biden camp has reportedly circulated poll results showing that the president had not lost ground after the debate, though it has also warned that a dip might be coming. The problem for Biden is that he needed to do more at the debate than just not lose ground. As pressure mounts, Biden is reportedly planning to meet with Democratic governors and congressional leaders on Wednesday.
