After a pause following the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, calls from Democrats for President Joe Biden to end his bid for a second term reignited Wednesday with Rep. Adam B. Schiff joining the effort.
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 first reported by the Los Angeles Times. “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.”
Schiff said whoever winds up leading the Democratic ticket, whether it remains Biden or another candidate, he will do whatever it takes to help them win.
“There is only one singular goal: defeating Donald Trump. The stakes are just too high,’’ Schiff said.
Schiff, who gained a national reputation as lead prosecutor of Trump’s first impeachment trial, is among the most prominent Democrats to call for Biden to step aside. A close ally of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he is currently the front-runner for California’s open Senate seat.
Schiff said it was time for Biden to “pass the torch,’’ using a phrase that some of the president’s most pointed Democratic critics have adopted. Shortly after Biden’s poor performance in a debate with Trump, a group called Pass the Torch was organized by Aaron Regunberg, a former state representative from Rhode Island. The group is planning a protest at the White House on Saturday.
Biden has repeatedly said that he plans to remain in the race, amid a chorus of calls for him to drop his campaign. By last Friday, more than a dozen House Democratic members and one senator – Peter Welch of Vermont – had urged the president not to run.
Since the Trump assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Biden has delivered a national address from the Oval Office, sat for an interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt and made a swing through southern Nevada, where he delivered remarks at the NAACP National Convention on Tuesday and attended an economic summit in North Las Vegas co-hosted by Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, who represents the district.
The efforts apparently did not convince Schiff that Biden can lead the party to victory, and it’s unclear whether they will stabilize the president’s poll numbers.
ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl also reported on the social media platform X that he had been told that Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., “forcefully made the case that it would be best if Biden bowed out of the race” in a conversation on Saturday.
Schumer’s office responded with a statement attributed to a spokesperson saying: “Unless ABC’s source is Senator Chuck Schumer or President Joe Biden the reporting is idle speculation. Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday.”
A poll released Wednesday by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 65 percent of Democrats say Biden should withdraw from the race and allow the party to select another candidate. The survey was conducted from July 11-15, and mostly completed before a gunman fired at Trump at a campaign rally.
It found demographic splits, with 56 percent of Democrats under 45 either very or somewhat dissatisfied with Biden as the party’s nominee. Among older Democrats, support for Biden to drop out was smaller, but still 43 percent. Black Democrats remain Biden’s strongest allies, with half saying he should remain in the race, compared with just a third of white and Latino Democrats.
Nearly half of Democrats polled said they did not think Biden, who is 81 and admitted having a “bad night” in the debate, has the mental capacity to serve as president. That’s up about a third from a similar survey in February.
The poll also found 6 in 10 Americans overall want Trump to withdraw from the race, but among Republicans, he remains popular.
The post Schiff urging Biden to quit race shows issue is not going away appeared first on Roll Call.
