32 House Representatives and three senators from Democratic Party call for US President to step down
US President Joe Biden is staring down his opponents in defiance of a revolt from within after more than 30 sitting Democrat party members called on him to step down.
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President Joe Biden has pledged to stay in the White House race, defying a growing Democratic Party revolt that raised speculation he could bow out as soon as this weekend.
“The stakes are high, and the choice is clear. Together, we will win,” the 81-year-old said in a statement from the Delaware beach home where he is in Covid isolation.
“I look forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week,” Biden added, as his doctor said the president was bouncing back from the symptoms of the disease.
But Biden’s political health appeared to be in far worse shape, with ten more House Democrats and two senators joining the list of politicians publicly calling on him to quit November’s election clash with Donald Trump.
A disastrous debate performance against Trump three weeks ago triggered panic about Biden’s age and health. More than 30 House Democrats and four senators have now called on him to drop out.
A key donor, Silicon Valley investor Michael Moritz, also joined other supporters such as actor George Clooney who want Biden to make way.
“Sadly, President Biden has a choice — vanity or virtue,” the New York Times quoted Moritz as saying.
With reports that top Democrats have also expressed concerns, polls showing Trump on course for a return to the Oval Office, and fundraising drying up, the walls appeared to be closing in.
NBC News reported that some of Biden’s family had “discussed what an exit from his campaign might look like” although there was no final decision to do so.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the frontrunner to succeed him as the Democratic presidential candidate if Biden does drop out, was holding an emergency call with donors on Friday US time.
Biden’s campaign however pushed back against reports that he would bow out, saying that while there had been some “slippage” in support, he was still the best candidate.
“Absolutely the president’s in this race,” campaign chairwoman Jen O’Malley Dillon told MSNBC’s Morning Joe program. “Joe Biden is more committed than ever to beat Donald Trump.”
REVOLT IN THE RANKS
The pressure on Biden has soared in the last 48 hours, with reports that former president Barack Obama, ex-House speaker Nancy Pelosi and the party’s congressional leaders had all expressed concerns behind the scenes.
An incredible 35 sitting members of the party – 31 House Representatives and three senators – have called for Mr Biden to step down amid growing fears the 81-year-old can no longer fulfil his responsibilities.
By Friday afternoon US time, 10 new sitting Democrats had spoken out against Mr Biden’s bid for re-election with each passing hour seeing yet another member of the party speak out.
One of the party’s top donors, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, invited other tech giants to join the call according to the New York Times.
“We continue to find ourselves in a rapidly evolving environment,” Mr Hoffman wrote in his invitation to his peers.
“With the stakes as high as they are this cycle, we have to remain focused on the critical work that needs to be done to protect our democracy.”
Mr Hoffman elaborated that the call would “discuss urgent, emerging needs” and those who dialled in would “also hear from leaders working on the front lines with voters.”
Earlier on Friday, Ms Harris seemed unruffled by the pandemonium engulfing her party, taking her two grand nieces out for ice cream at the new store opened by supermodel Tyra Banks.
Top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries was evasive on Friday, saying that the “ticket that exists right now is the ticket we can win on” but saying it was Biden’s “decision to make.”
The scene could now be set for the most crucial weekend of Biden’s presidency, with media speculation that the US leader is using his time hunkered down in Rehoboth Beach to consult family members and mull over the path ahead.
The NBC report said it could involve a “carefully calculated plan” to step aside based on his own timing, to give some dignity to what would be a historically late decision by a sitting US president not to run.
Any decision by Biden to step aside less than four months from the election would also have to try to avoid chaos in the Democratic Party over his successor as nominee.
Biden beat Trump in 2020, becoming the oldest president in US history in the process.
But a series of polls have shown him trailing Trump in the 2024 race despite his rival being a convicted felon, while some polls show Harris as more competitive.
The most recent sitting Democrats to voice their concerns are Florida House Representative Kathy Castor and Minnesota Representative Betty McCollum.
Ms Castor remained upbeat when she discussed the potential for the president to step down with TV network WFLA.
“I think it’s an exciting time to possibly pass the torch,” Ms Castor said.
“Kamala Harris is a fighter and I have full confidence in her.”
Ms McCollum also backed Ms Harris as a presidential candidate.
“Vice President Harris will need a strong Midwestern running mate and I encourage her and the Democratic delegates to consider a successful leader who has been a teacher, soldier, football coach, former member of Congress, and a proven winner — Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz,” Ms McCollum said.
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‘HE DIDN’T SEEM TO RECOGNISE ME’
A heartbroken Democratic Party House Representative has described the decline of the once energetic president who took him under his wing.
Seth Moulton of Massachusetts wrote an opinion piece published in the Boston Globe on Friday titled ‘Why Biden should exit the race.’
Mr Moulton spoke of how Mr Biden generously shared his political wisdom with him over the years and how much he admired the work the president had done for the American people.
Mr Moulton then went on to describe his shock when Mr Biden ‘didn’t seem to recognise’ him when the pair attended the 80th anniversary of D-Day commemorations in Normandy last month.
“Of course, that can happen as anyone ages, but as I watched the disastrous debate a few weeks ago, I have to admit that what I saw in Normandy was part of a deeper problem,” Mr Moulton wrote.
“It was a crushing realisation and not because a person I care about had a rough night but because everything is riding on Biden’s ability to beat Donald Trump in November.
“America needs him to win and, like most Americans, I’m no longer confident that he can.
“The president should bow out of the race.”
Mr Moulton’s sentiments were echoed by longtime California representative Zoe Lofgren who published an open letter to Mr Biden on Friday.
“As I am aware that you have been provided data indicating that you in all likelihood will lose the race for President, I will not go through it again. Simply put, your candidacy is on a trajectory to lose the White House and potentially impact crucial House and Senate races down ballot,” Ms Lofgren wrote.
“ It is for these reasons that I urge you to step aside from our Party’s nomination to allow another Democratic candidate to compete against and beat Donald Trump in the November election.
“I make this request with great respect for you, your work and in hopes that your legacy of accomplishments will be preserved.”
‘TIME FOR YOU TO PASS THE TORCH’
Five more sitting members of the Democratic Party have publicly called for Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.
Wisconsin’s Mark Pocan, California’s Jared Huffman and Texans Marc Veasey and Huy Garcia all signed a letter which they released to the media on Friday praising their leader but asking him to make the tough call to step aside.
“Mr President, with great admiration for you personally, sincere respect for your decades of public service and patriotic leadership, and deep appreciation for everything we have accomplished together during your presidency, it is now time for you to pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders,” the letter read.
“We must defeat Donald trump to save our democracy, protect our alliances and the rule-based international order and continue building on the strong foundation you have established over the past four years.
I am so appreciative of what President Joe Biden has gotten done for this country, but having a second Trump presidency is as scary of a thought as I can have.
— Mark Pocan (@MarkPocan) July 19, 2024
We need to move forward in a way that ensures Trump is never president. It’s time to pass the torch. pic.twitter.com/sqbGZfmfZU
“At this point, however, we must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardising what should be a winning campaign.
“These perceptions may not be fair, but they have hardened in the aftermath of last month’s debate and are now unlikely to change.”
The group made the case that Mr Biden could continue his work for the party, albeit not as the president.
“We believe the most responsible and patriotic thing you can do in this moment is to step aside as our nominee while continuing to lead our party from the White House,” they wrote.
The group of four House representatives was joined by Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico who posted to Twitter, formerly known as X, that he too believed Mr Biden should stand down.
While the decision to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden's alone, I believe it is in the best interests of our country for him to step aside. pic.twitter.com/45mSrr9xV2
— Martin Heinrich (@MartinHeinrich) July 19, 2024
“While the decision to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is in the best interests of our country for him to step aside,” Senator Heinrich wrote.
“The return of Donald Trump to the White House poses an existential danger to our democracy.
“We must defeat him in November, and we need a candidate who can do that.”
‘NOT IN FACT SECRET SERVICE AGENTS’
Most agents protecting Donald Trump when he was shot were not members of the elite Secret Service, according to sensational claims by government whistleblowers.
US Senator Josh Hawley revealed that several whistleblowers “with direct knowledge of the event” had come forward over the “stunning failure” to protect the former president.
“The majority of [Department of Homeland Security] officials were not in fact US Secret Service agents but instead drawn from the department’s Homeland Security Investigations,” Hawley said.
“This is especially concerning given that HIS agents were unfamiliar with standard protocols typically used at these types of events.”
The revelations come amid increasing scrutiny of Trump’s security detail on the day of the shooting, with particular focus placed on the agents attempting to protect the former president during the chaos.
Mr Hawley invoked whistleblower protections for the government employees in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the Secret Service.
In addition to the lack of dedicated Secret Service agents protecting Trump what was considered a “loose” security event, the whistleblowers said detection canines were not used to monitor entry and detect threats in the usual manner.
“Individuals without proper designations were able to gain access to backstage areas,” said Hawley, who sits on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
“Department personnel did not appropriately police the security buffer around the podium and were also not stationed at regular intervals around the event’s security perimeter.”
TRUMP TO HEAL AMERICA
Donald Trump vowed to heal America in a speech that veered from a harrowing description of the moment he survived an assassination attempt to more familiar partisan attacks that undermined his call for unity.
Accepting the Republican nomination for November’s election, the former president was uncharacteristically solemn as he spoke of his brush with death, telling the hushed crowd: “I am not supposed to be here tonight.”
“The discord and division in our society must be healed,” Trump said.
“As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together or we fall apart.”
“I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.”
The 78-year-old extended what he called “a hand of loyalty and friendship” to all voters, even those who had not supported him in his two previous campaigns, as he asked them with “great humility” to return him to the White House.
TRUMP BLASTS BIDEN
But in a 90-minute address – which he rewrote after he was shot at a campaign rally last weekend – Trump repeatedly swerved from his prepared remarks to the darker comments that typically pepper his stump speech.
He blasted the “unthinkable” damage he said US President Joe Biden had wrought, insulted “crazy” former Democratic speaker Nancy Pelosi, boasted of his relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un, and even reprised a bizarre riff about “the late, great Hannibal Lecter” to sound a warning to illegal immigrants.
Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said Trump was “just playing the greatest hits from 2016”, when he defeated Hillary Clinton in a stunning boilover.
“He has not changed. He has not moderated. He has gotten worse,” he said.
TRUMP DESCRIBES GUNSHOT FOR FIRST TIME
Telling the story in public for the first time of how he was shot, Trump said he would never repeat it because “it’s actually too painful”.
“The assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life,” the 78-year-old said.
He explained how he turned his head to look at a screen that was displaying a chart with data on border crossings.
“I was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which I’m very lucky I didn’t do, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear,” Trump said.
“I said to myself, wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet.”
“There was blood pouring everywhere and yet, in a certain way, I felt very safe because I had God on my side.”
He explained his defiant reaction – to raise his fist and shout “fight, fight, fight” – was because he wanted his supporters to “know I was okay”.
HULK HOGAN GOES FULL HULK
That chant was repeated throughout the night by his supporters, including wrestler Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White, who were given coveted prime-time speaking slots on the final night of the convention in Milwaukee.
Trump also called for a moment of silence for Corey Comperatore, who was killed in the attack. He brought out the volunteer firefighter chief’s jacket and helmet, which he kissed, and said $US6.3m had been raised for his family since the weekend.
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