President Joe Biden is scheduled to meet with Democratic governors on Wednesday amid growing concern in the polls and calls, including from some Democrats, for him to withdraw his candidacy.
Biden plans to meet with state governors and congressional leaders this week, officials said. Said on tuesday Reassure them Trump praised the president for his competence and handling of growing frustration among party leaders following their disastrous defeat in last week’s debate. News of the meeting came after Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democrat in the House to publicly call on the president to step down.
a Reuters/Ipsos Poll The poll released Tuesday also found that one in three Democrats said Biden should end his reelection campaign after his low-energy, disjointed performance in the Atlanta debate.
Speaking at a campaign event in Virginia on Tuesday night, Biden blamed his weak debate performance on international travel prior to the event. To tell“I wasn’t very clever. Before the debate I decided to travel the world a few times and go through about 100 time zones. I didn’t listen to my staff, came back and nearly fell asleep on stage. It’s not an excuse, but it does explain.”
He noted that his campaign has raised $38 million since last week.
As party leaders continue to publicly support Biden amid growing concerns behind the scenes, Doggett made his own concerns public, saying he hoped the debate would “provide some momentum” to the president’s stagnant approval ratings in key battleground states.
“That didn’t happen,” he said. “Instead of reassuring voters, the president failed to effectively defend many of his accomplishments and expose many of Mr. Trump’s lies.”
He urged Biden to follow the path of former Democratic President Lyndon Johnson and announce that he would not accept his party’s nomination, a move critics have dubbed an “LBJ moment” (after Johnson’s full initials).
“I represent the heart of the district once represented by Lyndon Johnson, and under very different circumstances, he made the difficult decision to withdraw,” Doggett said. “President Biden should do the same.”
Mr. Johnson dropped out of the 1968 race, citing growing public opposition to the Vietnam War and the presence of intraparty primary opponents that included Robert F. Kennedy, whose son is running as an independent in 2024 and has posted approval ratings that could deal further damage to Mr. Biden in a close race.
Doggett, 77, just four years younger than the 81-year-old president, praised Biden’s legislative accomplishments during his time in office but noted he had vowed to be a transition figure during the 2020 campaign and said it was time to hand the reins over to a younger generation.
“Much of his work has been transformative, but he has vowed to be in a transitional period,” he said. “He has the opportunity to encourage a new generation of leaders who can select candidates who will unify our country through an open, democratic process.”
“My decision to publicly express these strong concerns was not made lightly and does not diminish in any way my respect for all that President Biden has accomplished.
“Unlike President Trump, President Biden knows his first commitment will always be to our country, not himself, and I expect him to make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully urge him to do so.”
With a growing body of anecdotal and polling evidence suggesting that last Thursday’s CNN debate had a damaging effect on the president’s standing, it remains to be seen whether Doggett’s public stance will inspire and embolden other concerned Democrats.
The latest polls in New Hampshire – a state Biden won by 10 points in 2020 – show Biden trailing Trump by 2 points since the debate.
The Biden camp has positioned the debate as a one-off and has vowed to retaliate strongly, but there is growing dissatisfaction within the Democratic Party., Some state governors reportedly complained that the president had not reached out to them personally.
Some ostensible supporters, such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, have also made statements suggesting ambivalence.
“I think it’s a legitimate question to ask: Is this a seizure or is this an illness? It’s totally legitimate for people to ask that question about either candidate,” Pelosi told MSNBC, adding that she had heard “mixed” opinions about whether Biden is fit to run for president.
In another sign of simmering discontent, Vermont Democratic Sen. Peter Welch criticized the Biden campaign for dismissing concerns about the president’s age as “bedwetting.”
“But it’s something we have to discuss.” He said Semaphore. “There should be a range of input from the highest levels of the Biden campaign to the campaign manager on Chicago’s south side. … The campaign itself has expressed concerns … so I think it’s inappropriate to discount others who are expressing those concerns.”
