Following a key press conference Thursday night, three more House Democrats called on Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, a worrying sign for the incumbent president as he presses ahead with his campaign amid widespread concern following his disastrous performance in last month’s debate.
Democratic Reps. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Scott Peters (D-Calif.) and Eric Sorensen (D-Ill.) said minutes after Biden finished his hour-long press conference that he is not the leading candidate to beat former President Trump in November’s presidential election and should resign. They joined 13 other House Democrats and Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) in urging the president to step down.
While the three new opposition figures are small compared to the wave of resistance some expected after the news conference that concluded the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., the number reflects growing dissatisfaction with Biden within the Democratic Party and reinforces doubts about whether he can maintain his position at the top of the shortlist.
“The 2024 election will determine the future of American democracy, and we must put forward the strongest candidate possible to counter the threat of MAGA authoritarianism promised by Trump,” Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. “I no longer believe that is Joe Biden, and I hope that he will continue to put our country first, as he has done throughout his life in public office, and make way for a new generation of leaders, as he has promised.”
“The president’s track record will not translate to similar success in his reelection campaign,” Peters, who has served in Congress since 2013, said in a statement.
“This debate has raised real concerns among elected leaders, supporters and voters that the president is not able to run a winnable campaign,” he added. “This is not a passing phenomenon.”
“In 2020, Joe Biden ran for president with the intent of putting country above party,” Sorensen, the leading lawmaker, said in a statement. “Today, I am calling on him to do so again.”
Biden answered questions from reporters for about 50 minutes during his press conference, touching on topics including the war between Ukraine and Russia, the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East, the growing threat from China and, most importantly, concerns about his own fitness for the job and his viability as the Democratic presidential nominee.
“This campaign has a long way to go,” Biden said, “so I’m going to keep moving forward. I’m going to keep moving forward, because I’ve still got work to do.”
“I’m not here for my legacy. I’m here to finish the work I started,” he added elsewhere.
But perhaps the most memorable moments of the night were two gaffes that highlighted the president’s weaknesses that have dogged Democrats since last month’s debate.
Biden referred to Harris as “Vice President Trump” when answering the first question of the night, and just before the press conference, when introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden said “Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin” before later correcting himself.
“It’s terrible, it’s the worst of the gaffes,” a House Democrat told The Hill about confusing Zelensky with Putin.
The press conference came in the aftermath of Biden’s disastrous performance at last month’s debate, in which he stumbled over his words and lost his train of thought, and sparked growing calls for him to drop out of the race.
Reactions from House Democrats were mixed. Three members joined calls for Biden to step down, while some of Biden’s supporters defended him on social media. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), for example, praised Biden’s handling of foreign policy and national security issues, posting to X, “#RidinwithBiden.”
The House Democrat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic, called Biden’s performance a “mixed-point.” “I think he was strong,” said another Democrat who previously told The Hill that Biden should step aside, but declined to answer a question about whether the night’s events would affect his thoughts about Biden’s future.
The press conference and the reaction to it have raised questions about whether and when more lawmakers will join the movement to remove him from the nomination pool.
Himes said he intentionally waited until after the NATO meeting to make the announcement, and suggested more House Democrats could follow his lead in the coming days.
“I’m not the only Democrat who believes that the numbers and the trajectory and what the American people are feeling in their bones right now suggest that not only is Joe Biden going to lose this election, but that he or we are going to lose the Senate and the House,” he said in an interview on MSNBC.
“And because the stakes are so high, we all need to come together and put aside loyalty and poetry and romance and light cavalry charges and do some really hard analysis of whether this is the way forward,” he added.
He warned his colleagues: “If we don’t take a hard look at this issue, we will be complicit in Donald Trump’s second presidency.”
