MILWAUKEE — Democrats’ calls for President Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential election are growing louder after a brief pause in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s near-assassination on Saturday.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), the first House Dem to publicly call on Biden to step aside, is digging in, repeating his call in an illustration of how the mutiny against his party’s presumptive nominee is not going away.
“My call for President Biden to step aside remains even more urgent. Our decision must consider the reality of steadily worsening poll numbers, not just more wishful thinking,” Doggett, 77, said in a statement Wednesday.
“The risk of Trump tyranny is so great that we must put forward our strongest nominee,” he added.
Democratic rebels have been vexed by the party’s upper brass rejecting calls to drop plans for a virtual roll-call vote to officially crown Biden, 81, the nominee by Aug. 7.
A letter circulated among House Democrats asking the Democratic National Committee to reconsider that move, but leadership isn’t budging.
“Fast-forwarding the nomination process is no way to convince the many unconvinced voters in the growing number of battleground states,” Doggett said.
The exact date of the virtual roll call is unclear, but DNC chairman Jaime Harrison has said it will take place before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.
However, Ohio has a deadline of Aug. 7 — nearly two weeks before the convention — for candidates’ names to appear on the ballot. Plans for a virtual roll call to enshrine Biden as the party’s presidential standard bearer have been public since May in order to ensure he gets on Ohio’s ballot due to the state law.
“Those so eager to overly protect President Biden ignore his own words inviting anyone questioning his nomination to do so at the convention. Short-circuiting the normal convention process jeopardizes the White House, Senate and House.”
Officials have repeatedly rejected allegations that the move is meant to shield Biden, and stressed that the decision to do so came before his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump, 78, last month.
At least 20 congressional Democrats have publicly called on Biden to pass the baton, including Rep. Marie Glusenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), whose statement was less blunt but strongly indicated he should do so.
Biden has rejected those calls, insisting that he is “firmly committed” to continuing in the race, remaining adamant that he is the party’s best chance of defeating Trump in November.
Efforts to pressure him to step aside slowed down this week in the wake of the assassination attempt against Trump over the weekend and the Republican National Convention.
Both events, coupled with the fact that Congress is out on recess, briefly sucked the oxygen out of the attempted mutiny against Biden. But Doggett’s remarks make it clear that the effort isn’t going away.
Even more Democrats than those who have gone public have privately expressed deep concerns that Biden can’t win in November and view Trump as an existential threat to democracy.
“America is at serious risk of a totally unleashed Trump. After accomplishing so much for our country, this should not be the legacy for which Joe Biden is remembered,” Doggett continued. “Every day this decision is delayed, the focus is not on Trump’s lies, and a new Democratic nominee is offered less time to achieve victory.”
Doggett had been an ally of Biden’s prior to his call for the president to move aside.