Rep. Adam Schiff becomes 21st Democrat to call for Biden’s ouster
California Rep. Adam Schiff on Wednesday became the 21st Democratic member of Congress to call for President Biden to abandon his 2024 run, adding to the mounting pressure on the oldest-ever commander-in-chief following a disastrous debate performance and bungled media interviews.
“Joe Biden has been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history, and his lifetime of service as a Senator, a Vice President, and now as President has made our country better,” Schiff said in a statement. “But our nation is at a crossroads. A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.”
“While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” added the California Democrat, who is running for US Senate in November himself. “And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.
“But make no mistake, whoever our party ends up nominating, or if the nomination remains with the president, I will do everything I can to help them succeed,” Schiff hedged. “There is only one singular goal: defeating Donald Trump. The stakes are just too high.”
Schiff had come close to calling for Biden’s ouster before in an interview earlier this month on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” in which he slammed the Democratic Party leader and said he “should be mopping the floor with Donald Trump.”
“Joe Biden is running against a criminal. It should not be even close,” Schiff said. “There’s only one reason it is close, and that’s the President’s age.”
In an excerpt of an interview with BET released Wednesday, Biden for the first time acknowledged that an unfavorable medical diagnosis could prompt him to depart the race.
“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,” he said.
Democrats’ calls for President Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential election have increased after a few days of silence in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s near-assassination on Saturday.
Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and 19 House Democrats already expressed no confidence in their party leader’s re-election effort, with Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett doubling down on Wednesday hours before Schiff’s announcement.
“My call for President Biden to step aside remains even more urgent,” Doggett said in a statement. “Our decision must consider the reality of steadily worsening poll numbers, not just more wishful thinking.”
Those polls include a recent AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey that found nearly two-thirds of Democrats believe Biden, 81, should withdraw.
Biden naysayers in Congress have criticized the president’s faltering public appearances and in “rambling” private remarks to Democrats in the weeks since his debate flop against Trump on June 27.
“I think it’s a legitimate question to say, is this an episode, or is this a condition?” House Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said openly in an interview just days after Biden’s flailing performance.
House Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) also revealed that he “no longer” believed Biden had what it took after the president mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” during a NATO summit in DC last week — and mixed up the name of his vice president with his chief political opponent.
Most senior Democratic lawmakers — including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — have issued tepid statements of support.
Both met privately with Biden in the last week to discuss their respective caucuses‘ concerns, with some outright suggesting Vice President Kamala Harris as a potential replacement candidate.
Some Republican strategists at the party’s national convention in Milwaukee this week have taken notice of the Democratic infighting.
“We don’t know who the Democrat nominee for Vice President is going to be, so we can’t lock in a date before their convention,” Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes suggested when talking about a debate between GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance and Harris.
“To do so would be unfair to Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, or whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate,” Hughes gloated.
Schumer’s session with Biden occurred at Rehoboth Beach, Del., while the president was on vacation — and in the hours before Trump was shot at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., a spokesman for the majority leader had confirmed.
Democratic delegates could shove through the president as their party’s nominee via electronic vote later this month — though critics are agitating against the plan as a way to sweep concerns about Biden’s cognitive acuity under the rug before the Aug. 19-22 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
“Sometimes he gets confused about names,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told the New Yorker in an interview published Wednesday. “Sometimes he doesn’t put three sentences together.”
“But the reality of the moment is, in my view, he is the best candidate the Democrats have for a variety of reasons,” Sanders said, “and trying, in an unprecedented way, to take him off the ticket would do a lot more harm than good.”
