According to a report from Reuters, 25 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives are prepared to call on President Joe Biden to abandon his re-election bid.
According to the outlet, an anonymous Democratic Party aide in the House of Representatives is said to have said they will make the move if Biden, 81, appears “shaky” in the “coming days.”
Biden will have a major interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Friday, July 5, and has several more appearances planned.
The Reuters report comes less than a week after Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump held their first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle on Thursday, July 27.
During the debate, Biden appeared weak and struggled to articulate his points. He spoke about his poor performance the next day at a rally in North Carolina. “I don’t walk as easily as I used to. I don’t speak as fluently as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I know, I know how to tell the truth,” he told the crowd, with much more energy than he had shown the night before.
US President Joe Biden during the first presidential debate.
Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg/Getty
According to Reuters, a second House Democratic Party aide claimed that “moderate Democrats in competitive districts were peppered with questions in their districts after the debate.”
The second source continued: “It appears the dam has broken,” as calls for Biden to resign grow louder from members of his own party.
On Tuesday, July 2, Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett became the first Democratic member of Congress to publicly call for Biden to withdraw from the presidential race, according to CNN.
In a statement obtained by the outlet, Doggett said, “I represent the heart of a congressional district once represented by Lyndon Johnson. Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw (from the 1968 presidential race). President Biden should do the same.”
He went on to say that Biden should end his candidacy for the good of the country.
“Recognizing that, unlike Trump, President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself, I hope he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw,” Doggett wrote. “I respectfully urge him to do so.”
US President Joe Biden delivers a speech.
DANIEL COLE/POOL/AFP via Getty
Doggett later told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he wished he had “said it sooner, because I think we needed it — this should have been a decision that was made much earlier in the process.”
Earlier on Tuesday, CNN suggested that the fallout from Biden’s debate performance could hurt Democrats lower down the ticket — and potentially “cost Democrats the House of Representatives in November” — putting additional pressure on Democratic lawmakers.
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On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Biden recently spoke with an anonymous key ally about the uncertainty of his political future. The ally said of the conversation, “He knows if he has two more events like this, we’re in a different position” and argued that the president is aware that his campaign may not be salvageable without a rapid change in the narrative.
A White House spokesman denied the Time‘ report, and called it false.
Biden plans to debate Trump again in September.
