More Democrats call for Biden to drop out of the race | Real Time Headlines

presidential re-election campaign Joe Biden On Friday I received more and more calls. Democratic Party in congress To leave a race against former president Donald Trump and allow new nominees to receive the highest number of votes.

Shortly after Biden gave a rare speech press conference On Thursday, in an effort to allay concerns about his cognitive health, three other House Democrats said he should drop out of the race.

Several more lawmakers joined the group on Friday, and so far at least 19 congressional Democrats have called on him to withdraw. There are 213 Democrats in the House and 47 Democrats in the Senate.

“I have deep respect for President Biden’s more than five years of public service and a deep appreciation for the work we have accomplished together over the past three and a half years,” Rep. Mike Levine, D-Calif., said in a statement Friday.

“But I believe it’s time for President Biden to pass the torch,” Levin said.

Biden reiterated at a press conference on Thursday that he will continue to run for a second term and said that nothing could make him reconsider that decision other than polls showing that he had no chance of winning.

“No one is saying that,” said Biden, who is scheduled to deliver a campaign speech in Detroit later Friday. “There are no polls that say that.”

Biden participated in an hour-long news conference and took questions from reporters, prompting his campaign to declare victory over his opponents.

But his stuttering speech and misstatements — such as referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump” — did not win over members of his party. He also has no argument for why he remains in the race.

“I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president,” Biden said. “I beat Trump once and I will beat him again.”

Biden briefly acknowledged his low approval ratings, but noted only that “at least five people running for president or sitting president have lower approval ratings than I do right now late in the campaign.”

“There’s still a long way to go in this campaign. So I, I’m going to keep going, keep going, because, look, I’ve got more work to do. We’ve got more work to do.”

Still, few Democrats insist that Biden must remain the party’s nominee. Several key figures in the party have blatantly ignored Biden’s repeated claims that he has made up his mind, instead emphasizing how much time is left before the party’s August nominating convention.

Rep. James Clyburn, a longtime Biden ally, said Friday morning that the president should “continue to make his own decisions about his future.”

The South Carolina Democrat also suggested Biden may eventually agree to resign.

“If he decides to change his mind later, we will respond,” Clyburn told NBC’s “TODAY.”

“We have until August 19th to convene our convention, so I hope we can spend our time now on the record we will set for the American people, reminding the American people of what they will face if the 2025 plan is to become any form of law. , that’s what we should be focusing on,” Clyburn said.

Plan 2025 is a 900-page paper with hard-line conservative policy recommendations The conference was convened by the right-wing Heritage Foundation to set a policy agenda for Trump’s second term in the White House. Trump said last week that he had nothing to do with Plan 2025, but that several of his allies and alumni from his first White House term were involved in its development.

“We have to stop talking about ourselves and start talking about our opponents,” a Biden campaign official told NBC News. “Every day we don’t talk about Trump or the 2025 plan is wasted,” the official said.

But the past three weeks of campaigning have failed to quell calls for Biden to drop out of the race.

The calls were triggered by the president’s poor performance in the June 27 debate with Trump, in which Biden often said the wrong things and lost his train of thought.

Since then, more news reports have highlighted concerns among Democrats and Biden allies about the 81-year-old president’s mental acuity.

This is developing news. Please check back for updates.