Democrats Pile on with Calls for Biden to Withdraw, Upping the Pressure as President Holes Up in Delaware

Nearly a dozen Democrats added their voices Friday to the chorus of lawmakers calling on Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, as concerns about the incumbent’s mental acuity and ability to win in November mounts, bringing the total number of Democratic lawmakers who have publicly turned on Biden to 32.

As the president recovers from Covid at his Delaware beach house, rank-and-file Democrats are coming out publicly in quick succession to urge the president to pass the torch, while party elders — including former speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and former president Barack Obama — are reportedly expressing their doubts about Biden’s viability behind closed doors.

Senator Martin Heinrich (D., N.M.) became the third Democratic senator calling for Biden’s withdrawal on Friday. Senators Jon Tester (D., Mont.) and Peter Welch (D., Vt.) made similar calls this week.

“While the decision to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is in the best interests of our country for him to step aside,” Heinrich said. “By passing the torch, he would secure his legacy as one of our nation’s greatest leaders and allow us to unite behind a candidate who can best defeat Donald Trump and safeguard the future of our democracy.”

Four House Democrats authored a letter on Friday that asked Biden to “pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders.”

“We must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign,” Representatives Jared Huffman (D., Calif.), Marc Veasey (D., Texas), Jesús Garcia (D., Ill.), and Mark Pocan (D., Wis.) said. “These perceptions may not be fair, but they have hardened in the aftermath of last month’s debate and are now unlikely to change.”

“We believe the most responsible and patriotic thing you can do in this moment is to step aside as our nominee while continuing to lead our party from the White House,” they added.

An additional four House Democrats called on Biden to withdraw individually, including Representatives Greg Landsman (D., Ohio), former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s ally Zoe Lofgren (D., Calif.), Sean Casten (D., Ill.) and Betty McCollum (D., Minn.).

“As I am aware that you have been provided data indicating that you in all likelihood will lose the race for President, I will not go through it again,” Lofgren wrote in a letter. “Simply put, your candidacy is on a trajectory to lose the White House and potentially impact crucial House and Senate races down ballot.”

The public defections come after a series of reports published Thursday indicating that party heavyweights

Although Vice President Kamala Harris has publicly supported Biden’s ticket, NBC reported on Friday that an informal group of Democratic strategists have already begun to devise a plan for Harris’s potential presidential campaign.

“To pull this off, the Democrats are going to have to pull off an all-hands-on-deck strategy, and I don’t know if the party is ready for this,” one source told NBC. “Everybody has to be out.”