As outgoing US President Joe Biden faces increasing calls to withdraw his candidacy, he is meeting with Democratic governors to reassure them.
According to the Guardian, Biden will speak with governors and Capitol leaders this week, officials said on Tuesday, to reassure them of his capability and to address the growing dissatisfaction among party leaders following his poor performance in the debate with Donald Trump.
Biden’s response to his debate appearance
At a campaign event in Virginia on Tuesday night, Biden attributed his weak debate performance to his recent international travels, saying, “I wasn’t very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple times, going through about 100 time zones… before… the debate. Didn’t listen to my staff and came back and nearly fell asleep on stage,” he said. “That’s no excuse but it is an explanation.”
The first Democrat to call for Biden’s withdrawal
On Tuesday, Lloyd Doggett, a congressman from Texas, became the first Democrat in the House of Representatives to publicly call on the president to step down. Doggett expressed his misgivings, saying he had hoped the debate “would give some boost” to the president’s stagnant poll numbers in key states. “It didn’t,” he said.
“Instead of reassuring voters, the President failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies.”
Doggett urged Biden to follow the example of a previous Democratic president, Lyndon B. Johnson, and announce that he will not accept the party’s nomination – a potential move commentators have dubbed the ‘LBJ moment’.
“I represent the heart of a congressional district once represented by Lyndon Johnson. Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw,” Doggett said. “President Biden should do the same.”
Furthermore, Doggett – at 77, just four years younger than the 81-year-old president – praised Biden’s legislative accomplishments in office but said it was time to pass the torch to a younger generation, noting that he had pledged during the 2020 campaign to be a transitional figure.
It is noted here that Johnson withdrew from the 1968 election race amid a popular wave of opposition to the Vietnam War and primary challengers within his own party, including Robert F. Kennedy, whose son is running as an independent candidate in the 2024 election, and whose poll numbers are at levels that could further hurt Biden in a tight race.
Over 20 Congressmen call for Biden’s withdrawal
A new poll in New Hampshire – a state Biden won by 10 points in 2020 – now shows him two points behind Trump following the debate.
While Biden’s campaign team tried to characterise the debate as an isolated incident and promised a strong counter-attack, there have been murmurs of discontent within the Democratic ranks, including from some state governors who reportedly complained that the president had not personally reached out to them.
Some seemingly supportive figures, such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Jim Clyburn, a representative from South Carolina, issued statements that hinted at ambivalence. “I think it’s a legitimate question to say, is this an episode, or is this a condition?”, Pelosi said on MSNBC, adding that she had heard “mixed” views on whether Biden is fit for the presidential campaign.
In another sign of simmering dissatisfaction, Peter Welch, a Democratic senator from Vermont, criticised Biden’s campaign for dismissing concerns about the president’s age.
“But that’s the conversation we have to have,” he told Semafor. “It has to be from the top levels of the Biden campaign to precinct captains in the South Side of Chicago. … The campaign itself has voiced these concerns… So then to be dismissive of others who raise those concerns, I think it’s inappropriate.”
(information from in.gr)
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