US president Joe Biden faced mounting opposition within his own party on Wednesday as a Senate Democrat joined a growing number of House legislators in calling on him to step aside from the US presidential election.
Vermont Democrat Peter Welch became the first sitting senator to directly call for replacing the 81-year-old president whose disastrous debate performance has raised concerns about his mental acuity and thrown his reelection bid into tumult.
“For the good of the country, I’m calling on President Biden to withdraw from the race,” Mr Welch said in an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he warned about the dangers of another Donald Trump administration.
“We cannot unsee President Biden’s disastrous debate performance. We cannot ignore or dismiss the valid questions raised since that night,” Mr Welch, wrote in the op-ed on Wednesday. “For the good of the country, I’m calling on President Biden to withdraw from the race.”
More prominent Democratic senators, including Virginia’s Mark Warner, have reportedly been organising in private to pressure Mr Biden to withdraw from the race, but Mr Welch is the first to make an official public statement.
For the past two weeks, Biden and his administration have rejected questions about his health and calls for him to pass on the torch to a younger Democratic candidate, with the president arguing last Friday that “I don’t think anyone is more qualified to be president and win this race than me.”
Mr Biden’s position has not changed and he fully intends to lead the party into the election, aides said on Wednesday.
While the president so far has avoided a calls for him to step aside among influential party members that might make his continued candidacy impossible, the new calls for him to step aside – delivered by Democratic lawmakers and prominent Hollywood donors – underscore how perilous Mr Biden’s political position remains.
Hollywood heavy hitters including Netflix chairman Reed Hastings, superagent Ari Emanuel, heiress Abigail Disney, screenwriter Damon Lindelof and author Stephen King have joined the chorus calling on Mr Biden to drop his re-election bid. On Wednesday, actor and director George Clooney weighed in with an opinion piece in the New York Times.
Allies remain deeply concerned about his campaign’s viability and the risk it poses to other elected Democrats.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is open to replacing Mr Biden as Democrats’ nominee, US news website Axios reports.
The New York Democrat is privately signalling his concern to donors, Axios said, citing three sources. He has publicly stood by Mr Biden even as other senators have expressed worry about the president leading the party’s ticket.
In a brief statement later released by his office, Mr Schumer reiterated his support, which he said he has made clear “repeatedly publicly and privately.”
Mr Schumer invited senior Biden campaign advisers to come to the Capitol on Thursday to brief senators and directly address their outstanding concerns.
Former house speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier Wednesday said on MSNBC that Mr Biden should quickly decide whether to stay in the race, even though Mr Biden sent a letter to lawmakers Monday saying he has decided to do so.
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday evening, Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado said that he told colleagues in a meeting earlier that he doesn’t think Mr Biden can defeat Mr Trump.
Mr Bennet on Wednesday said he’s “looking forward” to meeting Biden campaign officials. “We should have had it 10 days ago,” he said. – Bloomberg