Senator Peter Welch of Vermont became the first Democrat from the chamber to call for President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race following his disastrous debate performance.
Welch penned an op-ed for the Washington Post on Wednesday praising Biden’s record and urging him to step aside in the wake of his debate showing.
“I, like folks across the country, am worried about November’s election. The stakes could not be higher. We cannot unsee President Biden’s disastrous debate performance. We cannot ignore or dismiss the valid questions raised since that night,” Welch wrote.
“I understand why President Biden wants to run,” he added. “He saved us from Donald Trump once and wants to do it again. But he needs to reassess whether he is the best candidate to do so. In my view, he is not.”
Welch joins a handful of House Democrats who have publicly called on the president to step aside as Biden digs in and tries to build support on Capitol Hill.
Representatives Lloyd Doggett (D. Texas.), Raul Grijalva (D., Ariz.), Seth Moulton (D., Mass.), Mike Quigley (D., Ill.), Angie Craig (D., Minn.), Adam Smith (D., Wash.), Mikie Sherrill (D., N.J.), Pat Ryan (D., N.Y.), and Earl Blumenauer (D., Ore.) have all called for Biden’s ouster.
“The line is: ‘I agree with you. I’m not going public – yet,” Quigley told NR on Monday, when referring to his colleagues’ privately held views. “They just haven’t gotten to the tipping point.”
On the other hand, the Congressional Black Caucus’s membership and “squad” Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex (D., N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.), and Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) have backed Biden’s push to stay in the race. Other lawmakers have suggested that the choice to drop out or to continue running is only Biden’s to make.
As of now, Biden holds 99 percent of the Democratic Party’s delegates ahead of the party convention next month. Biden easily won the Democratic primary against Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota and author Marianne Williamson. Phillips spent most of his short-lived presidential campaign warning that Biden’s age could become a problem.
If Biden were to step aside, Vice President Kamala Harris would become the immediate front-runner to replace Biden at the top of the ticket. Thus far, despite growing pressure, Biden has strongly rejected calls for him to drop out.
Post-debate polls in crucial swing states have shown former president Donald Trump’s likelihood of victory growing, tilting the Cook Political Report election forecast to Trump’s favor.