By Moira Warburton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett became the first congressional Democrat to call for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race on Tuesday, following a widely panned performance at Thursday’s debate.
Doggett, of Texas, applauded Biden’s “transformational” first term in office but said it was time to let another member of the party challenge Republican Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 election.
“Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so,” Doggett said in a statement.
Biden’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Biden’s campaign has hoped to reassure U.S. voters, a majority of whom say they believe Biden is too old to work in government, that the president was the best choice against his predecessor Trump.
But Biden’s stumbling performance during the debate had the opposite effect. His team has since scrambled to reassure key donors that Biden’s appearance was a fluke.
Although Doggett is the first congressional Democrat to explicitly call for Biden to withdraw, others have suggested such a move may be worth considering.
“He has to be honest with himself,” Democratic Representative Mike Quigley, a moderate from Illinois, told CNN on Tuesday. “It’s his decision. I just want him to appreciate at this time just how much it impacts, not just his race, but all the other races coming in November.”
In addition to the White House, Democrats are defending several vulnerable seats in the Senate, where they hold a 51-49 majority, and are trying to recapture a majority in the House.
Doggett pointed to that dynamic.
“President Biden has continued to run substantially behind Democratic senators in key states and in most polls has trailed Donald Trump,” Doggett said. “I had hoped that the debate would provide some momentum to change that. It did not.”
(Reporting by Moira Warburton; Editing by Scott Malone and Trevor Hunnicutt)
