Jamie Metzl, who served President Biden as deputy staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Biden was a senator during the Clinton administration, told Fox News Digital that the president should not accept the Democratic nomination following Biden’s debate performance.
“I have a lot of respect for Joe Biden. He was my former boss. I think he’s a great person and a great American patriot. But most people who watched him in last night’s debate would come to the conclusion that he may not have another four and a half healthy years left to perform at the highest level that’s expected of a president of the United States,” said Metzl, author of “Superconvergence: How the Genetics, Biotechnology, and AI Revolution Will Transform Our Lives, Work, and the World.”
“And so, with a very heavy heart and deep sadness, I have come to the conclusion that the best course of action for the Democratic Party and the country is for President Biden to announce that he will not seek the Democratic nomination for president,” Metzl said.
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Metzl said he thinks Biden has done a “fantastic” job in his first term, adding that before he took office, “our democracy was under significant attack, literally the Capitol was under attack. Our alliance was falling apart. So I think President Biden has actually done a pretty good job. Of course he’s not perfect, and there are a lot of things that I and we can and should criticize.”
She added that calling for Biden to step down “is not a statement about his performance in his first term as president. It’s a statement about what it takes to be president of the United States for four years. And unfortunately, I don’t think Joe Biden, who I have a lot of respect for, is capable of that anymore.”
Jamie Metzl (pictured above), who worked for President Biden on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Biden was a senator, told Fox News Digital that the president should not accept the Democratic nomination following his performance in Thursday night’s debate. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Metzl explained that he worked with Biden nearly 25 years ago and has noticed “significant differences” between then and now.
“That’s completely normal. We have parents and grandparents, and we know that age is a very real thing, even for someone as healthy as President Biden,” Metzl said. “When you’re in your 80s, the tides of time hit us all. So, while I have a lot of respect for Biden, I think we as Democrats need to be brutally honest with ourselves, because if we’re not, I guarantee the voters in November will be brutally honest with us.”
Open Convention
Metzl said the Democratic Party has an open convention policy. “I think it would be a mistake to start this process at that point, because the person who is nominated needs to have legitimacy — not just be selected at a party convention, but they need to have legitimacy through some form of public engagement and public process. So I think President Biden should announce in the next few days that he will not be seeking the nomination, and whoever wants to run should run.”
He suggested the candidates will hold weekly debates for the major candidates over the next month, along with some “big old-fashioned retail politics.” “They have a very short period of time to communicate who they are, what they stand for and engage with voters. That’s not comfortable. It would have been better if we had regular primaries a year ago. But this is the way it is, and I think we need to make the most of it.”
Metzl said watching Thursday night’s debate left him “very distressed.” (Lokman Vural Eribor/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Biden, who faced no significant primary challenger and quickly became the presumptive Democratic nominee, and his campaign also insisted on Friday that he was not considering dropping out of the race.
““I don’t know what is realistic and what is not,” Metzl said when asked whether Biden would consider pulling out. “I can tell you that if President Biden and his team had said this morning, ‘We’re considering next steps,’ it would have been game over at that point. So now they have to say, ‘We’re in to win.'”
“Private conversation”
“And the question is, what happens over the next few days? Perhaps there will be additional polling that will provide information. Perhaps, very likely, there will be private conversations. But I don’t think it will be possible for President Biden to rebrand himself to the American people after last night’s performance.”
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Metzl said there are a number of Democratic candidates who could potentially replace Biden, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
““I think there are certainly some strong candidates,” he said, “but the problem is that our electoral system often requires a long primary period before people get to know the candidates. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were relative unknowns when they announced their candidacy for president.”
“And it took all that interaction in the primary for voters to get to know them. So it’s going to be a really tough challenge for governors and senators and others who aren’t well known by the general public to become well-known over the next month or so and have a tailwind going into the Democratic National Convention in August.”
Biden and Trump held the first of two presidential debates on Thursday. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
While Metzl acknowledged it would be difficult for an alternative candidate to beat Trump, he said: “I think that’s possible. I don’t think Donald Trump is a strong candidate at all, and I don’t think that choice has served the American people well.
Could Biden be unseated as the Democratic nominee? How could this unusual move happen?
“President Biden clearly looks his age and it was clear during last night’s debate that President Trump has no remorse. He supports the attack on the U.S. Capitol, he supports efforts to undermine the fabric of American democracy, he supports efforts to call into question our entire electoral system. So I’m not a fan of Donald Trump. I think Donald Trump is a pretty big threat to American democracy. But President Biden has not shown enough vigor to make voters believe he can handle the responsibilities of being president for the next four and a half years.”
It’s time to move forward
Metzl said that if he could speak with Biden, he would tell him, “President Biden, you are my personal hero. You are a man of great ethics and integrity. You have given so much to this country that you love. And now, in perhaps your final and greatest act of patriotism, it is time for you to pass the baton to a new generation.”
But Metzl said he believes Trump is “unfit to be president of the United States” and will vote for Biden if he is still running in November’s presidential election.
“I believe that by calling into question what was, by all accounts, the cleanest election system in American history and by supporting an attack on our nation’s capital, Donald Trump has become unfit for this role,” Metzl said.
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Metzl said it would be difficult to “change my opinion” of Biden after the debate.
““We all saw the debate last night,” he said. “It was very painful, very sad. It felt like King Lear to me. I have great love and respect for President Biden, but I think the time has come. I think he has great patriotism left to make one last statement, and I believe that statement is for him to make a statement that he will not accept his party’s nomination for president.”
