Just minutes after President Joe Biden’s so-called “big boy press conference” ended on Thursday night, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee called for him to step aside and allow another presidential nominee to take his place, presaging a potential flood of Democrats expected to similarly break ranks over the next few days.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) said in a statement that he no longer believed the strongest candidate to confront the threat posed by Donald Trump’s “promised MAGA authoritarianism” was Biden. “I hope that, as he has throughout a lifetime of public service, he will continue to put our nation first and, as he promised, make way for a new generation of leaders,” he said.
In a statement on X, Himes praised Biden for his record of public service, remarking that his legacy “as a great president” was secure. He urged the 81-year-old not to risk that legacy and American democracy itself in order “to soldier on in the face of the horrors promised by Donald Trump.”
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In a subsequent interview on MSNBC, the Connecticut representative said that it was vital to “set aside that loyalty and the poetry and the romance and the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ and ‘we all go down together’” mentality keeping his colleagues in lockstep with Biden.
“If you don’t look at this in a cold, hard way,” Himes added later, “you will be complicit in Donald Trump’s second presidency.”
Half an hour later, Politico published a statement from Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) echoing Himes’ words.
“Today I ask President Biden to withdraw from the presidential campaign,” he said. “The stakes are high, and we are on a losing course.”
Not long after, Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-IL) posted a statement on X, writing that in 2020, Biden “ran for President with the purpose of putting country over party.”
Now, Sorensen said, he wanted Biden “to do that again”—and withdraw.
“I believe our best days are still ahead,” he continued in part. “And today, I am hopeful President Biden will step aside in his campaign for President.”
Earlier, as Americans waited for Biden to kick off his first solo news conference since November, CBS News had reported that “potentially dozens of Democrats” were expected to call for Biden to stand down over the next 48 hours. The planning is “coordinated,” sources with knowledge of the matter told the network.
Himes told MSNBC on Thursday night that his statement, at least, was not part of any coordinated effort.
More than a dozen House Democrats have now called for Biden to abandon his campaign. Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) is the first, and so far only, U.S. senator to chime in. Several prominent Democratic donors, including Oscar winner George Clooney, have also pressed Biden to pull out.
The Thursday press conference eventually began two hours after its scheduled start, at 7:30 p.m. local time in Washington, D.C. The president trundled along, reading competently off a teleprompter as he recited his accomplishments at the NATO summit that occurred throughout the week.
But his gaffes and slip-ups both before and after that speech threatened to overshadow it entirely.
First came the mistake of introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky onstage at a NATO ceremony as “President Putin.” He quickly corrected himself, rushing back to the microphone to excuse his error as the product of his focus “on beating Putin.”
But then, while answering the first question at the news conference, Biden referred to his vice president, Kamala Harris, as “Vice President Trump.” This time, he appeared not to notice his blunder.
Biden has given no indication that the mounting calls to mothball his bid for re-election are working to change his mind—or even sway him from his course.
“I’m determined on running, but I think it’s important that I allay fears by letting them see me out there,” he said at the news conference.
The president added that he understood lawmakers would act in their own self-interest. (Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly been encouraging vulnerable Democrats to take whatever stance on the matter they need to in order to secure re-election.)
“If they think that running with Biden at the top’s gonna hurt them, run away!” the president said. “I get it.”
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), who previously said Biden should step aside, called the president’s performance “a fine job,” but added that the party couldn’t keep holding its breath every day.
The majority of the Democrats on Capitol Hill have remained publicly supportive of Biden. Some said they felt reassured by his Thursday performance.
“He has been a great president and he’ll be the Democratic nominee,” Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee told The Daily Beast. “He’s running against the worst president in history. He can’t lose if we all get together and support him and quit trying to tear him apart. He may not be perfect, but he is man of rectitude and knowledge.”
