Tim Ryan has become the most senior Democrat to openly call for Joe Biden to step aside, saying Kamala Harris would “destroy” Donald Trump.
The former presidential hopeful and Ohio Democratic Senate candidate’s call for Harris to take over is a step few other prominent members of the party have been willing to take as of yet.
“We have to rip the band aid off!” Ryan said in a post on X, sharing an op-ed he wrote calling for Vice President Kamala Harris to take over at the top of the ticket and become the new Democratic nominee. “Too much is at stake.”
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Ryan argued Harris “has significantly grown into her job” and would “destroy” Donald Trump in the next debate, scheduled for September.
In his Newsweek op-ed, Ryan sounded a tad exasperated over how his calls for a new generation of leaders to take over the party have gone ignored.
“Joe Biden's debate performance was deeply troubling,” Ryan said. “But it isn't just about a 90-minute debate and a terrible performance. This election needs to be about generational change—something about which I have been shouting for more than a year now.”
Ryan called the president not just “a good and honorable man,” but also “the most pro-union, pro-manufacturing president in my lifetime.”
Yet even if Biden “understands the working class people—regardless of race or gender—that I represented in my Northeast Ohio Congressional District for 20 years,” Ryan said it’s still time for him to step aside.
Alluding to Biden’s offhand remark during the 2020 campaign about being a bridge to a new generation of Democratic leaders, Ryan went for the dramatic.
“Regrettably, that bridge collapsed last week,” Ryan wrote. “Witnessing Joe Biden struggle was heartbreaking. And we must forge a new path forward.”
