Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the influential lawmaker known for leading a successful 2019 effort in the House to impeach former President Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, added his name on Wednesday to the list of Democrats calling for President Joe Biden to step down from the top of the party’s ticket.
Telling the Los Angeles Times that Biden “has been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history,” Schiff expressed concerns about the president’s ability to beat Trump in November. It’s time for Biden to “pass the torch” to a new nominee, Schiff said, warning that a “second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy.”
The announcement by Schiff, who is seen as a close ally of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, comes amid a renewed surge of opposition to Biden’s continued presence on the Democratic ticket.
Biden reportedly had a tense Zoom call on Saturday with members of the New Democrat Coalition. The president is said to have lashed out at Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, an Army ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, who bluntly told Biden that voters are questioning his fitness for another term.
“I don’t want to hear that crap,” Biden responded at one point, according to CNN.
On the call, Biden defended his leadership and his foreign policy accomplishments, but he also expressed frustration with Democratic lawmakers, according to reports. Those lawmakers were left with significant concerns, and some reportedly may have called for Biden to step aside if not for the assassination attempt on former President Donnald Trump.
“Members were largely dismayed with Biden's presentation, lack of a strategy, and preparation for anticipated questions,” ABC News reports. “Two sources described Biden's exchange with the former Army Ranger as ‘incoherent’ and ‘unintelligible.’”
Those concerns have continued since the weekend. Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida said Wednesday that numerous Democratic lawmakers in the House are questioning Biden’s continued viability.
“I’m deeply concerned that the president’s circle, the people who are working around the president, who quite frankly have kept him in a bubble for some time, are also not giving him the facts and the polling data on the ground – they’re not showing him what we’re seeing in our districts, what we’re seeing in the polling,” Moskowitz told CNN. “That is the concern that’s going on right now within the Democratic House caucus.”
Asked if Biden has met the conditions his campaign has reportedly set for the president to step aside — namely, poor performance in fundraising, interviews and polling — Moskowitz said Biden is “three for three” if those are the guidelines but added that Biden will have to make the decision on his own.
According to a new survey by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 65% of Democrats agree that Biden should withdraw from the race and allow the party to select a new candidate for president. Overall, including Republicans and independents, 57% of survey respondents said Biden should step down. (The survey of 1,253 adults nationwide was conducted July 11-15.)
Younger Democrats gave Biden the least support, with 75% of those between ages 18 and 44 saying Democrats should nominate someone else. As a group, Black Democrats showed the greatest support, with 50% saying Biden should continue as the nominee. But that’s just one percentage point more than the 49% saying he should withdraw.
Biden still has supporters in Congress, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, who told The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner that he thinks Biden has the best record of any modern president, and that any effort to remove him would harm Democrats’ chances of winning in the fall. “I think he is the best candidate, and I think if he runs a strong, effective campaign focused on the needs of the working class of this country, he will win,” he said. “And I think there’s a chance he could win big.”
Time is running out for Democrats to make any potential change to their ticket. But the Democratic National Committee said Wednesday that it would wait until early August to formally nominate Biden in a virtual vote, abandoning a plan to do so as soon as this coming Monday. That gives Democrats a few more weeks to figure out definitively who will lead them this fall.
