President Joe Biden allayed Democrats’ fears ahead of his 2024 re-election against former President Donald Trump during a highly anticipated abc news Interview on Friday night, his first televised interview since his awkward debate appearance in June.
On Saturday, Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota officially called on Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
“This is not a decision I made lightly, but there is simply too much at stake to risk a second Donald Trump presidency,” Craig said in a opinion on Saturday morning. “That is why I respectfully urge President Biden to step down as the Democratic nominee for a second term as President and make way for a new generation of leaders.”
Craig is now the fifth Democrat within the House of Representatives to call on Biden to resign. Michael QuigleyD-Il., made his own announcement during a MSNBC Interview Friday, shortly before the total 22-minute interview aired on ABC News.
They join a growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers, donors and strategists who’re losing confidence in Biden's ability to run a successful campaign against Trump. Representatives Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Raúl Grijalva (D-Arizona) and Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts) have also publicly called on Biden to resign.
“The President is rightly proud of his record,” said David Axelrodwho served as senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, after the ABC News interview aired. “But he has a dangerous connection to the concerns people have about his [capacities] what happens next and what his position is in this race.”
Earlier this week, former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., some of Biden's closest allies, publicly acknowledged concerns about Biden's fitness for re-election. Pelosi, for example, said it was “legitimate” to ask whether Biden's debate performance was just a one-off episode or a sign of a longer-term condition.
Both Pelosi and Clyburn stressed that they continue to support the president in his efforts to seek a second term.
Jeffries meeting on Sunday
On Wednesday, Biden made a series of phone calls and meetings, including with Pelosi, Clyburn and a gathering of Democratic governors, to reassure his worried supporters.
While the list of Democrats voicing concerns about Biden continues to grow, much of the panic is taking place behind closed doors.
Several Democratic lawmakers and their staff spoke anonymously to NBC News on Friday evening and Saturday morning and reiterated their concerns about Biden after the ABC News interview.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is working to organize a virtual meeting of the ranking members of the Democratic caucus on Sunday, where Biden is likely to be a topic of discussion. NBC News reported.
On the other side of Capitol Hill, Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia) is trying to convene a meeting of Democratic senators next week to discuss Biden's concerns about his re-election and the potential impact on the next presidential race, according to the NBC News report.
Loss of donor support
Meanwhile, the donor class has sounded its own alarm bells regarding Biden.
“We must leave gerontocracy behind us!” Galaxy CEO Michael Novogratza crypto billionaire and Democratic donor, posted on social media on Saturday morning: “We need to brush the team that has been in charge for the last 30 years off the sphere and hand over the reins!! It's time.”
Novogratz had previously supported the campaign of the Democratic challenger with little chance of success, Dean Phillips (Democrat of Minnesota), before dropping out of the race.
But Novogratz is part of a growing wave of Democratic donors who are losing their support for Biden. Some of them, like Disney heiress Abigail Disney, have banned their future donations to the party until the president drops out of the race, CNBC previously reported.
A flood of surveys, including from the New York Times/Siena College and that Wall Street Journal Biden has lost ground to Trump following his debate flop on June 27. His performance at the debate is remembered primarily for the moments when he stumbled over his words, failed at times to form coherent sentences, or paused spontaneously in the middle of an answer to seemingly collect his thoughts.
“It was a nasty episode. No indication of a serious condition. I used to be exhausted. I didn't take heed to my instincts in preparing and had a nasty night,” Biden told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in the interview on Friday.
The president added emphatically that he has no plans to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
“If the Lord Almighty got here down and said, 'Joe, drop out of the race,' I’d drop out of the race,” Biden said. “But the Lord Almighty shouldn’t be going to return down.”
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