Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) on Friday stopped short of defending President Biden, but argued that it is former President Trump who needs to “step back” ahead of November.
Asked by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes whether he thought Biden should remain the nominee, Swalwell said it was “a little late” to replace the incumbent, but added that the president needed to “show more strength” as a growing number of Democrats call for him to drop out of the race.
“Chris, it’s a little late in an election season for the presumptive nominee of a party to step down, but I’m going to call on one of the candidates to do so here,” Swalwell said on Friday. “Donald Trump should step down. He’s a convicted felon.”
“There are probably 350 million people in this country who are less cruel than I am and more competent to do the job,” he later added, “and they should be the ones stepping down.”
Trump was convicted in late May of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money he paid adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election cycle to hide allegations of an affair he had had in the past. The former president denies the charges and has vowed to appeal his conviction.
Earlier this year, a New York jury awarded $83.3 million to author E. Jean Carroll in a civil trial that found the former president liable for sexual assault.
Swalwell was responding to a clip shared by Hayes of Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) calling on Biden to withdraw from the party’s nominee early Friday. Swalwell said Biden “has a lot more to show.”
The criticism stems from Biden’s poor performance in a debate more than a week ago, in which he lacked energy, appeared stumped and his voice was raspy, sparking widespread panic among Democrats worried about whether he could beat Trump this fall.
“Joe Biden needs to show more, and his staff needs to talk less and get the president in the public eye,” Swalwell told Hayes. “And he needs to do that yesterday, not tomorrow.”
The White House has been criticized for offering a variety of explanations for Biden’s performance, from jet lag to a cold. Biden has accepted responsibility, calling the debate a “bad episode.”
Many Democrats have also called for Biden to have more time to speak to the public unscripted. The president gave his first interview since the debate on Friday night with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
Biden didn’t stumble during the interview, but that didn’t seem to be enough to halt calls from Democratic lawmakers for him to withdraw from the race. Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) issued a statement Saturday morning calling on the president to step aside.
Five current House members — Craig, Quigley, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona) and Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts) — have pressured Biden to drop out of the race and give someone else a chance to lead the nomination race and take on Trump in November.
Two other Democratic congresswomen, Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Grusenkamp Perez of Washington, have also said they believe Trump will win this fall’s election.
Biden has dismissed these voices, saying he is the party’s nominee and has no intention of stepping down, even as they continue to grow stronger within his party.
“If the Almighty God came down and said, ‘Joe, step aside,’ I’d step aside. The Almighty God is not going to come down,” Biden said in an interview with ABC.
Stephanopoulos pressed Biden on what he would do if congressional leaders asked him to resign, but Biden said he would not do that.
The Washington Post reported Friday that Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is gathering signatures from other senators to send a letter to Biden urging him to drop out of the race.
