Here are the Democrats who expressed concerns about Biden’s candidacy after the debate debacle

In the week following his highly criticized performance in the first televised debate of the 2024 presidential election, President Biden has remained defiant in the face of growing concerns about his fitness for re-election.

But his efforts to reassure voters about his ability to defeat the former President donald trump for the second time, they did little to suppress growing pressure from his party and a barrage of experts for him to reconsider his candidacy.

A series of editorials from major media outlets calling for Biden to suspend his re-election campaign was followed by reports like the one published by the New York Times on Tuesday about Biden’s “increasingly common and worrying” mental “lapses.” On Wednesday, Bloomberg Government Report that “dozens of Democratic lawmakers are considering signing a letter demanding that the president Joe Biden withdraw from the race”, citing “a senior party official”.

On Tuesday, Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democratic lawmaker to call on Biden to drop out of the race, with other representatives following suit, and a growing number of Democratic leaders are publicly voicing concerns about his ability to face Trump. November. Furthermore, Biden is seeing big money donors defect of its cause.

Biden, however, showed no signs of backing down. He sat down for his first post-debate interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Friday and rallied in Wisconsin before campaigning in Pennsylvania on Sunday.

Yahoo News has compiled a running list of all Democrats who have publicly expressed concerns about Biden’s continued campaign following the debate. Check back here as this article will be continually updated.

Representative Angie Craig

Craig, a Democrat who represents Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, issued a statement on Saturday, hours after the ABC interview, for Biden to step aside in the 2024 race.

While stressing his respect for Biden’s “decades of service,” Craig said “given what I saw and heard from the President during last week’s debate in Atlanta, coupled with the lack of a forceful response from the President himself following that debate, I do not I believe the president can effectively campaign and beat Donald Trump.

“This is not a decision I made lightly, but there is simply too much at stake to risk a second Donald Trump presidency,” she added, before calling on Biden to drop out of the race and “allow a new generation.” of leaders to move forward.”

“There is only a small window left to ensure we have a candidate best equipped to champion the cause and win,” Craig said.

Representative Mike Quigley

Quigley, an Illinois Democrat, on Friday became the fourth House Democrat to call on Biden to drop out of the presidential race.

“Mr. President, your legacy is defined,” he said on MSNBC. “We owe you a great debt of gratitude. The only thing you can do now to cement this for good and avoid total catastrophe is to resign and let someone else do it.”

Quigley has previously publicly expressed reservations about Biden continuing his campaign, urging the president to “appreciate at this point how much this impacts not just his race, but every other race that will take place in November.”

Governor Maura Healey

The first-term Massachusetts Democrat issued a statement Friday urging Biden to “listen to the American people and carefully consider whether he remains our best hope for defeating Donald Trump.”

Healey stopped short of calling for Biden to resign and praised the president, saying he “saved our democracy in 2020 and did an excellent job over the last four years.”

“Whatever President Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump,” Healey added.

Representative Seth Moulton

Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat and Iraq war veteran, became the third House Democrat to call on Biden to resign on Thursday. He did it in a interview with Boston radio station WBUR.

“President Biden has done our country a tremendous service, but now is the time for him to follow in the footsteps of one of our founding fathers, George Washington, and step aside to allow new leaders to rise up and compete against Donald Trump,” Moulton said. to WBUR.

Moulton said the mechanism for choosing a new candidate “has not yet been determined” and could include “some type of primary process” or that Vice President Kamala Harris could emerge as the presidential candidate.

On Wednesday, Moulton had released a statement who stopped short of asking Biden to leave, but recommended that “all viable options” be on the table.

Deputy Raúl Grijalva

Grijalva became the second House Democrat to call on Biden to step down. In an interviewhe said, “If he is the candidate, I will support him, but I think this is an opportunity to look elsewhere.”

“What he needs to do is take responsibility for keeping this seat,” he continued, “and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race.”

Deputy Marie Gluesenkamp Perez

Perez did not officially ask Biden to withdraw in an interview with an ABC affiliate on July 3. The Washington congresswoman said: “The truth, I think, is that Biden is going to lose to Trump. … I think the damage has been done by this debate.”

Representative Summer Lee

CBS News reported that during a radio interview, Lee, of Pennsylvania, said “the vice president is the obvious choice” for the nominee if Biden decides to drop out.

Representative Ann McLane Kuster

Kuster, who is the president of the New Democratic Coalitiontold CNN on July 3 that he had “raised concerns” to the White House and the Biden campaign.

“To address the concerns of our voters, we need to demonstrate that the president is fit not only for office, but also for the campaign,” said the New Hampshire congresswoman. “They [the insurrectionists] almost killed me on January 6th. The risks are very high. I’m trying to save our democracy.”

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

Although Pelosi openly supported Biden over the weekend, during a July 2 interview with MSNBC, she backed off a bit, saying, “I think it’s a legitimate question to say, ‘Is this an episode or is this a condition?’… both candidates.”

Representative James Clyburn

Like Pelosi, Clyburn appeared to soften her previous stance on Biden’s continued candidacy in an interview with MSNBC.

“I will help [Harris] if [Biden] they should step aside,” the South Carolina congressman said.

Former Obama staffer and former San Antonio mayor Julián Castro

Castro told MSNBC on Tuesday that “there are strong options for Democrats — we have a lot of stable people who I think could do a better job, including Vice President Harris.”

Representative Jared Golden

In an opinion article published in a local Maine newspaper titled “Donald Trump will win the election and democracy will be fine,” Golden said he was not surprised by Biden’s debate performance.

“The outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: although I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump will win. And I’m okay with that,” Golden wrote. The Maine congressman added that he did not plan to vote for Trump. “Unlike Biden and many others, I refuse to participate in a campaign to scare voters with the idea that Trump will end our democratic system.”

Senator Peter Welch

On a interview with SemaforWelch, of Vermont, criticized the Biden campaign’s “despicable” attitude toward his debate performance.

“Passivity is not the answer that will work for us. We all have to be self-aware,” he said. “We all have to be fully aware that our obligation is to the country, even more than to the party. That’s the obligation we have – what’s best for the country.”

Representative Debbie Dingell

“One interview isn’t going to solve this,” said Dingell, of Michigan. in an interview with CNN. “I think the campaign needs to listen to people. And speaking of which, I think the campaign needs to listen to us.”

Representative Lloyd Doggett

Doggett was the first Democrat in office to publicly call for Biden to step down. In a statement, that circulated in X on July 2, Doggett of Texas said Biden’s debate performance failed to reassure voters and that Biden “failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s lies.”

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

In a July 1 interview with CBS affiliate WPRI, Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, said he was “pretty horrified” after watching the debate.

“I’ve never seen this happen before,” he said of Biden’s performance. “I think people want to make sure that this is a campaign ready to win, that the president and his team are being honest with us about his condition, that this was a real anomaly and not just the way he is these days. .”

Former Ohio Representative Tim Ryan

Ryan published a opinion piece for Newsweek on July 1, which called for Kamala Harris to be the new Democratic nominee.

“We have to rip the band-aid off! There’s a lot at stake,” Ryan wrote in an X post linked to his article. “It’s time!”