Democrats Now More Willing to Go Public with Biden Concerns

It may not quite be a flood of top Democrats, but we’re starting to see more Democrats willing to publicly raise concerns about President Biden’s ability to be the party’s nominee.

To consider, in just the past two days:

• Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said he was “horrified” by the debate and explained to local news station WPRI, “I think people want to make sure that this is a campaign that’s ready to go and win, that the president and his team are being candid with us about his condition — that this was a real anomaly and not just the way he is these days.”

• Senator Peter Welch of Vermont told Semafor, “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.”

• Representative Mike Quigley of Illinois warned on CNN, “It’s his decision. I just want him to appreciate at this time just how much it impacts not just his race, but all of the other races coming in November.” He added that “we have to be honest with ourselves that it wasn’t just a horrible night. But I won’t go beyond that out of my respect and understanding of President Joe Biden — a very proud person who has served us extraordinarily well for 50 years.”

• Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland said on MSNBC that there were “very honest and serious and rigorous conversations happening at every level of our party.”

Meanwhile Tim Ryan, a former Ohio congressman with a bit more latitude, has come right out and declared, in a Newsweek column, that Biden should be replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris.

While this isn’t Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer or House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries or Representative Nancy Pelosi or Barack Obama speaking, clearly we’re starting to see more of these concerned comments than we did just after the debate.

What changed?

One factor is that the campaign team has tried to brush off the concerns as just another example of pundits “bedwetting.” Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign chair, absurdly argued on a call with supporters that the president is “probably in better health than most of us.”

Another is that we’ve started to see more post-debate polling come out suggesting a move toward Trump in the horse race, while CBS News finds that just 27 percent of registered voters now believe Biden has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president.

In addition, the Biden team hasn’t done any of the obvious things to assuage the concerns raised by the debate — such as scheduling live one-on-one interviews, holding a prime-time news conference during which Biden spars with reporters for hours, doing a blitz of large and energetic campaign events.

Instead, since a rally in North Carolina the day after the debate, Biden has been largely out of public view. After the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, Biden waited until nighttime to deliver five minutes of remarks read from the teleprompter without taking any questions. He has a low-key schedule this week, before heading off to Delaware for the holiday weekend.

The only plausible explanation as to why Biden isn’t doing more things to appear vigorous and tamp down concerns is that he cannot. As a result, I expect that the pressure to get Biden to drop out will only grow in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: Amid pro-Biden talking points, Pelosi acknowledges, “I think it’s a legitimate question to say, ‘Is this an episode or is this a condition?”