Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) on Friday became the fourth Democratic congressman to call on President Biden to end his reelection bid.
The Illinois Democrat appeared on MSNBC after the broadcast of Biden’s highly anticipated interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos and made a direct plea to the 81-year-old president.
“Mr. President, your legacy is set. We owe you the utmost. The only thing you can do now to cement that forever and prevent total ruin is to step down and let someone else take over,” Quigley said during an appearance on “All In with Chris Hayes.”
The senator argued that with Biden out of the race, “we’re back in a fierce battle with former President Donald Trump from day one.”
“All of a sudden, all the things that we’re talking about with President Biden … we have a lot more to talk about with President Trump,” Quigley said, arguing that the 78-year-old Republican candidate has “cognitive issues.”
Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts) and Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona) had previously called on Biden to resign.
Reuters reported earlier this week that 25 House Democrats were preparing to ask the president to halt his campaign.
According to the Washington Post, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is also planning a meeting between the president and Democratic senators where he is expected to urge Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
In his interview with Stephanopoulos, Biden said he couldn’t clearly remember whether he watched the replay of his June 27 showdown with Trump.
“No, I don’t think I did that,” he told the This Week host.
What to know about the impact of President Biden’s debate performance:
Trump campaign adviser Stephen Chang mocked Biden’s response on social media.
“I just watched the debate again, how can you not get it?” Chan wrote to X.
During an appearance on CNN, Quigley said Biden’s response to the question was “disturbing.”
When Stephanopoulos asked Biden if he was aware of how poorly he performed at the time, Biden began rambling on.
“I’m not responsible for all the preparation that I’ve done, I’m responsible. I’m not responsible for anybody but me. I sat down and prepared like I always do when I come back to hear specific details from foreign leaders and the National Security Council,” the president said.
“Then I realized halfway through, The New York Times had lowered my rating by 10 points before the debate and now they’ve lowered it by nine points or something like that. The fact is, I looked it up and he lied 28 times. The way the debate was conducted was not my fault, nobody else’s fault, nobody’s fault, I couldn’t do it,” he added.
ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl reported after the full interview aired that Biden’s meeting raised “new concerns” for some Democrats.
Of particular concern, Kahl said, was Biden’s response when asked how he would feel if he lost to Trump in November.
“As long as I’ve done my best and done the best job I can, I’ll be satisfied. That’s what this job is about,” the president said.
Karl reported that a prominent Biden supporter responded to the president’s response by saying “wow.”
“With all due respect, what’s really important is avoiding the reelection of President Trump,” Quigley said in response to Biden’s bizarre response.
He also said the president appeared to be in “complete denial” of polls that showed he would likely lose the election to Trump.
David Axelrod, a political consultant and former adviser to President Barack Obama, said in an interview that Biden had not done enough to change the minds of Democrats worried about his chances of winning the November election.
“There was some sadness in it,” Axelrod said during an appearance on CNN.
“Biden just can’t seem to grasp the fact that people are having these doubts about him,” an adviser to former President Barack Obama said, referring to questions about Biden’s cognitive abilities.
In response to Biden’s claim that he “subjects to full neurological testing every day” as commander in chief, Axelrod noted that “75% of Americans say he doesn’t pass the daily testing,” referring to polls showing a majority of voters say Biden is unfit to be president.
Axelrod said Biden was “running away from reality” by ignoring warnings from Democratic lawmakers, strategists and polls that Trump was leading the race, and argued that “the going is tough.”
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer called the interview a “horrible disaster” for Democrats.
“Biden hasn’t made any real mistakes — he hasn’t done anything to throw himself out of the race — but he looks old, frail and hesitant and outdone by Trump,” a former senior Bush White House official wrote to X.
“So Biden is going to hang on. The Democrats are in a stalemate,” he added.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) likened the interview to a “therapy session” and claimed Stephanopoulos was “begging President Biden to drop out of the race.”
“What I saw tonight was horrifying,” Graham tweeted.
“If we believe President Biden is as healthy as he claims he was when he took office, he should undergo cognitive testing.”
