US Reps. Casten and García join call for President Joe Biden to step aside

Illinois U.S. Reps. Sean Casten and Jesús “Chuy” García on Friday added their names to the growing list of Democrats calling for President Joe Biden to step aside and not run for a second term.

Casten and García become the fourth and fifth Illinois congressional Democrats to encourage the 81-year-old Biden to abandon his effort to defeat former President Donald Trump in the November election. Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination Thursday night in Milwaukee.

In a submitted opinion piece published online Friday by the Chicago Tribune’s Editorial Board, Casten, a west suburban congressman since 2019, said if the upcoming election was a referendum on performance, promises and character, he thinks Biden would defeat Trump.

“But politics, like life, isn’t fair. And as long as this election is instead litigated over which candidate is more likely to be held accountable for public gaffes and ‘senior moments,’ I believe that Biden is not only going to lose but is also uniquely incapable of shifting that conversation,” Casten wrote. “It is with a heavy heart and much personal reflection that I am therefore calling on Biden to pass the torch to a new generation.”

Casten, of Downers Grove, called on Biden “to manage an exit with all the dignity and decency that has guided his half-century of public service” and “to cement his legacy as the president who saved our democracy in 2020 and handed it off to trusted hands in 2024 who could carry his legacy forward.”

García’s call came in a joint statement on social media with U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman of California, Marc Veasey of Texas and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin.

A three-term congressman from Chicago’s Southwest Side, García’s call for a Biden to step aside put him at odds with both fellow progressives and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The Hispanic Caucus’ political action committee on Friday endorsed Biden.

Veasey is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, whose members largely have remained in the president’s camp, while Huffman and Pocan, like García, are members of the Progressive Caucus. Pocan hails from a swing state that will be key to the Democrats’ ability to retain the White House after the election.

“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 parry from the White House,” the congressmen told Biden in their statement. “Democrats have a deep and talented bench of younger leaders, led by Vice President (Kamala) Harris, who you have lifted up, empowered, and prepared for this moment.”

Casten’s and García’s statements comes as a number of prominent Democrats, led by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have encouraged Biden to step aside following a disastrous debate performance late last month.

In recent days, Biden, who has steadfastly maintained he would continue to run for president, has reportedly become more open to the idea of bowing out of the campaign. Pelosi reportedly told Biden in a recent private conversation that polling showed he could not defeat Trump and that staying in the race could significantly hurt Democrats’ chances of winning the House and holding its slim lead in the Senate.

Casten and García join fellow Illinois Democratic congressmen Mike Quigley of Chicago, Brad Schneider of Highland Park and Eric Sorensen of Moline in calling for Biden to step aside. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has repeatedly said he is backing Biden’s reelection efforts, though he attracted attention Thursday with a comment at an unrelated event in Decatur during which he said the president is “apparently going to be our nominee.”

A statement Pritzker issued after Trump’s acceptance speech Thursday made no mention of Biden but said the GOP nominee’s “attacks on the most vulnerable and on the middle class demand that we come together to defeat him in November.”

In his op-ed piece, Casten described Trump as a threat to American democracy, describing him as “a twice-impeached convicted felon and adjudicated rapist who has promised to be a ‘dictator on day one.'”

“In the conversations I’ve had with the folks it is my privilege to represent, there is tremendous fear about this moment. People wonder whether our nation — and indeed, our world — can survive another Trump administration. They watched women’s rights get stripped away by the Supreme Court; saw our enemies praised and our allies alienated; and saw children separated from families, Muslims banned from entering our country and neo-Nazis praised as ‘very fine people,'” Casten wrote.

“They have not forgotten the fear we all felt as — for the first time since the War of 1812 — the Capitol was attacked and the peaceful transfer of power was disrupted on Jan. 6. And that was before the Supreme Court ruled that presidents cannot be held to account for their actions in the White House.”

Casten also noted that at the end of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln said he never doubted the nation would prevail because “there was always just enough virtue in the republic to save it; sometimes none to spare but still enough to meet the emergency.”

“I have every confidence that informed voters who understand the stakes of this election will prove Lincoln to be right once again. But we need a messenger at the top of the ticket who can make that case,” Casten wrote. “It breaks my heart to say it, but Biden is no longer up for that job.”