Wave of Hill Dems renews calls for Biden to drop out

A new wave of Democrats has renewed calls for President Joe Biden to drop out of the race on Friday — a sudden burst of new defectors at the end of a week of crisis for the Biden campaign that’s been defined by leaks and backchannel conversations about the president’s potential exit.

It’s a signal that the party has run out of patience and believes a decisive moment is at hand — and the latest indication that Biden has failed to staunch the flood of Democrats urging him to step aside since his disastrous debate performance on June 27. Since then, more than two dozen Democrats have called on him to step down while top Congressional leaders are reportedly urging him to reconsider his decision to remain in the race behind closed doors.

First on Friday was Rep. Sean Casten, who published an op-ed “calling on Biden to pass the torch to a new generation.”

Hours later, four more House Democrats, including two who hail from the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — groups that have strongly backed Biden — released a joint statement calling on Biden to step aside.

Shortly after, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) also called on Biden to pass the torch, becoming the third senator to do so after Sen. John Tester (D-Mont.) made the call late Thursday. Heinrich had previously expressed concerns over Biden but had not explicitly called on him to drop out.

By the afternoon, Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) had joined the pile, releasing separate statements.

Reps. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Marc Veasey (D-Texas), Chuy García (D-Ill.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said in their statement that the party has a “bench of young leaders,” naming Vice President Kamala Harris specifically. Veasey is a member of the Biden-loyal Black Caucus and Garcia is part of the Hispanic Caucus, whose political PAC endorsed Biden Friday.

Lofgren, Huffman, Pocan and Garcia are all vocal members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which has been more split on Biden's future on the ticket — though some members of the so-called progressive Squad have been firmly in his corner.

“We must face the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and fitness are jeopardizing what should be a winning campaign,” the four wrote in the letter. “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 added: “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.”

Still, Biden has been unwavering in his public promise to stay in the race, and his campaign doesn’t appear to be backing down. “Absolutely the president’s in this race,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Friday.

“I’m not here to say this hasn’t been a tough several weeks for the campaign, there’s no doubt that it has been, and we’ve definitely seen some slippage in support,” O’Malley Dillon added. “But it has been a small movement.”

But as more Democrats pile on, that could be changing.

“I think our president is weighing what he should weigh, which is who is the best candidate to win in November and to carry forward the Democratic Party’s values and priorities in this campaign,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), one of Biden’s closest allies in the Senate and a co-chair of Biden’s 2020 and 2024 campaigns, said Friday at the Aspen Security Forum.