Biden’s Democratic support is waning |
Democratic panic has reached a fever pitch six days after President Biden’s dismal debate showing. Lloyd Doggett became the first sitting Democratic lawmaker to call on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, and more could follow. “We want to give him space to make a decision [to step aside], but we will be increasingly vocal about our concerns if he doesn’t,” one House Democratic lawmaker told CNN. Nancy Pelosi also said it was “legitimate” to question whether Biden’s performance was an “episode” or a “condition.” Another Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, penned an op-ed casting the election outcome as an inevitable victory for Donald Trump, while Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez offered a similar assessment. Rep. Jim Clyburn said he would support Vice President Harris if Biden were to step aside, as new polling showed Harris performing slightly better than Biden against Trump. James Carville advised donors to cut off politicians who don’t try to push Biden out on a conference call heard by Kadia Goba, while Biden ally Dmitri Mehlhorn could only argue that “Kamala Harris is more threatening to those swing voters than a dead Joe Biden or a comatose Joe Biden.” The White House is heeding calls to get Biden out there, announcing trips to Wisconsin and Pennsylvania later this week as well as plans for a news conference at next week’s NATO summit. Biden is also slated to sit for an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Friday, and will hold a meeting with Democratic governors later today. During a campaign reception in Virginia yesterday evening, Biden blamed his poor performance on the overseas trips he took earlier in June and said he “almost fell asleep on stage” at the debate. Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that Biden’s lapses have grown in frequency, and that afternoon naps were built into his debate prep sessions. A veteran quoted by the Times who Biden honored at the D-Day events in Normandy described him as a “person who is fragile and not really in charge.” |