Growing Democratic rift: Calls for Biden to step down intensify

On Friday, a group of Democrats from the United States Congress decided to join the growing number of their party’s congress members who are publicly appealing to President Joe Biden to refrain from running for the office of President in the White House. Despite these calls, Biden remains resolute, announcing that he does not intend to withdraw from the race against Donald Trump.

Senators Martin Heinrich from California and Sherrod Brown from Ohio appealed to Biden. They were joined by over a dozen members of the House of Representatives, including two close allies of former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi: Jared Huffman and Zoe Lofgren, both from California.

Not only they but also other members of major Democratic groups that usually support the president joined the appeal. Marc Veasey from Texas became the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus to publicly call for Biden to step down. Meanwhile, Gabe Vasquez and Chuy Garcia from Illinois are members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and they also joined this call.

Additionally, the group calling for Biden's resignation included Mark Pocan from Wisconsin, Sean Casten from Illinois, Greg Landsman from Ohio, Betty McCollum from Minnesota, Kathy Castor from Florida, and Morgan McGarvey from Kentucky.

Many of them, while expressing their respect for Biden’s long years of public service, emphasized that it is time for the 81-year-old president to "pass the torch" to a younger generation. They warned that Trump “remains as grave a threat to the Constitutional order and rule of law that he was on January 6, 2021 when he incited insurrection.”

A joint statement by Veasey, Garcia, Pocan, and Huffman, quoted by NBC News, says, “We must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing 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.”

They also emphasized that the Democrats have talented, younger leaders within their ranks, pointing to Vice President Kamala Harris as a potential leader.

On the other hand, the most well-known members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York, have called on Democrats not to turn away from the president.

On the same day, Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, emphasized that Biden still has a chance to defeat Trump and will resume his campaign trail next week after recovering from the Covid virus. Biden’s campaign spokeswoman, Mia Ehrenberg, emphasized that many other Democrats still support his candidacy.

“While the majority of the caucus and the diverse base of the party continues to stand with the President and his historic record of delivering for their communities, we’re clear-eyed that the urgency and stakes of beating Donald Trump means others feel differently,” she argued.