Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Massachusetts, on Thursday became the third House Democrat to publicly call for President Biden’s supporters to drop out of the presidential race after they were upset during last week’s debate.
“President Biden has done so much for our country, but it’s time to follow in the footsteps of one of our founding fathers, George Washington, and step aside and allow new leadership to rise up and run for office as an anti-establishment candidate.” [former President Trump]” Moulton told Boston-area radio station WBUR on Thursday.
Moulton, who competed against Biden for the 2020 presidential nomination, said on Wednesday that the party should consider “all viable options” as questions swirl about whether Biden can remain at the top of the Democratic field.
“Raising further bets when the current strategy is not working is hardly the right decision. President Biden is not getting any younger,” Moulton said in a statement Wednesday.
The White House insisted Wednesday that Biden is not dropping out of the race and party leaders have publicly supported him. Biden said in a fundraising email on Wednesday that no one is “trying to throw” him out of the race.
“I am the Democratic candidate,” the fundraising email read. “No one is trying to get rid of me. I have no plans to go away. I am going to fight this race to the end. And we are going to win this election. If that’s all you want to hear, please support me by donating a few dollars.” [Vice President Harris] And I’m going to defeat Donald Trump in November.”
Still, cracks in Democratic support for Biden have begun to appear this week. Both centrist Democratic Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Grusenkamp Perez of Washington have said they believe Trump will beat Biden in November, and several Democrats told The Hill privately that behind the scenes discussions have been taking place since the debate about whether Biden could emerge as the front-runner.
Moulton joined fellow House colleagues Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona) in publicly calling on Biden to drop out of the race.
“President Biden continues to trail well behind Democratic senators in key states and also behind Donald Trump in most polls. We had hoped the debate would provide the momentum to change that, but that has not happened,” Doggett said in a statement. “Instead of reassuring voters, the president failed to effectively defend many of his accomplishments and expose many of Trump’s lies.”
