The pressure is looming on POTUS Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race and now a senior Democratic party member has stepped in to do the needful. After the 46th president failed to convince voters about his “fitness” to serve America for five more years in the White House, especially after the Donald Trump debate catastrophe, the first-elected Democrat likely to take the call.
In a new interview with Anderson, @RepLloydDoggett , the first sitting Democratic member of Congress to call on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, explains his decision. pic.twitter.com/wXvjsVBwni
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) July 3, 2024
Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas is the first Democratic party member to publicly call Biden to step down, citing, that POTUS should “make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw .” Doggett explained, “My decision to make these strong reservations public is not done lightly nor does it in any way diminish my respect for all that President Biden has achieved.”
He continued, “Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so,” per AP News. He also argued that if Biden didn’t withdraw, it is likely that the Republican front-runner could win the elections.
Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett has just become the first sitting Democrat in Congress to call for President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 2, 2024
The 77-year-old is a veteran Congressman with a little national profile. The Texan, who is now in the spotlight, made a name for himself in the early 2000s as a vocal critic and opponent of Congress’s decision to authorize America’s invasion of Iraq. Also, he was the founder of the House Affordable Drug Pricing Task Force in 2015, as per The New York Times.
We need everyone on the same page and must show strength. The senior Democratic lawmakers need to have a face to face meeting with President Biden, air their grievances and plan the best path forward. With everyone coming out of it with a unified message.
— Denison Barb (@DenisonBarbs) July 2, 2024
Doggett, who is in his 15th term serving Austin, clarified, “President Biden saved our democracy by delivering us from Trump in 2020. He must not deliver us to Trump in 2024.” He admitted that while watching the debate on June 27, 2024, he was “alarmed” and concerned about the future of the Democratic party and the Americans in the coming five years. “We need to go with our strongest candidate, and the public is saying that is not President Biden. I feel that way as well.”
In another interview with NPR , Doggett weighed in, “I’m not a vulnerable member in this election. So I’m able to step forward and speak out about what I think is so critical for our country in ways that perhaps some other people have not. But I certainly have not gotten any discouragement from within the leadership of the party. I think the concerns I’m voicing are widespread. I wish this had been resolved earlier.”
🔊 A Reuters/Ipsos poll finds that one in three Democrats think US President Joe Biden should quit the race. @MaloneReuters explains the impact of his weak debate performance, on the Reuters World News podcast https://t.co/EPoJQZbK5L pic.twitter.com/JfsgvZb8u2
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 3, 2024
Meanwhile, several donors also feel the same way and urged Biden to step aside as they think he’s not equipped to beat the former president in 2024. A Reuters/Ipsos poll after the debate revealed one in three Democrats think POTUS should end his re-election bid. Some 32% of Democrats said in a two-day poll that he should now give up. A second White House aide said, “It looks like the dam has broken.”