Rep. Adam Schiff said he has “serious concerns” about President Joe Biden‘s ability to beat former President Donald Trump in November — making him the latest Democrat to issue a call for the president to step aside from his re-election bid.
For update, see: Biden drops out of the 2024 race, endorses Harris
Schiff, currently the favored candidate to become California’s next U.S. senator, has been voicing his fears about Biden’s age for weeks, noting that perceived weakness at the top of the ticket could harm Democrats running down ballot.
But Schiff on Wednesday, July 17, said publicly that it is time for the president to “pass the torch.”
“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,” Schiff, D-Burbank, said in a statement.
Schiff urged Biden to step aside in order to “secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.” He said the decision to do so is that of the president alone, but he would lend his full support to whatever candidate sits at the top of the Democratic ticket.
“I will do everything I can to help them succeed,” he said. “There is only one singular goal: defeating Donald Trump. The stakes are just too high.”
Schiff joins a growing chorus of Democrats urging Biden to withdraw from the race, and recent polling suggests Democratic voters want him out as well. Seven in 10 adults — and that includes 65% of Democrats — said Biden should withdraw when surveyed in a Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Wednesday. The poll was conducted after the presidential debate last month.
Reps. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, and Scott Peters, D- San Diego, were the first House Democrats from Southern California to directly call on Biden to step aside from the race.
Levin also directly told Biden, during a virtual meeting last week, to forgo his re-election bid. During the meeting, held by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s political arm, Biden took two questions and then opened it up for one more.
Levin was unmuted and expressed his desire for Biden to drop out of the race, people in the meeting told the Southern California News Group.
Rep. Lou Correa, an Orange County Democrat present in the meeting, could not recall verbatim Biden’s response but said the president said something to the effect that he is not dropping out of the race but will instead move forward.
Concerns about Biden’s ability to defeat Trump in November have escalated since a disastrous performance on the debate stage in June. Since that televised debate, where Biden, 81, stumbled verbally and appeared at times to lose this train of thought, the president has faced mounting questions about his health and mental competency.
Schiff’s mentor, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has also expressed concerns with Biden’s viability as a candidate. In a recent interview on MSNBC, Pelosi, a powerful figure in Democratic politics, said concerns about Biden’s mental fitness are a “legitimate question” in the race but fell short of publicly calling on him to drop out.
Biden has maintained that he’s staying in the race. In a letter to congressional lawmakers earlier this month, Biden said he is well aware of the concerns that people have and is spending time closely consulting with party leadership, rank-and-file Democrats and voters.
“I can respond to all this by saying clearly and unequivocally: I wouldn’t be running again if I did not absolutely believe I was the best person to defeat Donald Trump in 2024,” Biden said.
He then urged people to move forward from the presidential debate and focus on winning the election.
“Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us,” he stated. “It’s time to come together, move forward as a united party and defeat Donald Trump.”
Since that July 8 letter, the president has continued to make several gaffs while speaking in public. He mistakenly referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” while speaking after a meeting of NATO leaders in Washington. Later that same evening, he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump.”
