Leading Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff has made a striking call for Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.
Schiff became one of the most prominent Democrats to publicly express their distaste for Biden amid growing concerns about his age following his disastrous debate performance with Donald Trump last month.
“While the choice to withdraw from the campaign rests solely with President Biden, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” Schiff said in a statement on Wednesday.
“And by doing that, we are securing his leadership qualities so that we can defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election,” he continued.
Schiff, a ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and a close ally of Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, is running for Senate representation in California.
He also led the first impeachment inquiry into Trump.
Rep. Adam Schiff called on President Biden to withdraw from the presidential race and ‘pass the torch’
“Joe Biden has been one of the most influential presidents in our nation’s history. His lifetime of service as senator, vice president, and now president has made our country better,” the campaign statement read.
“But our country is at a crossroads. A second Trump presidency will undermine the foundation of our democracy, and I have grave concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November,” he continued.
“But make no mistake, whoever our party nominates, or if the nomination remains with the president, I will do everything in my power to help them succeed. There is only one goal: defeat Donald Trump. The stakes are simply too high,” he added.
President Biden speaks at the Prosperity Summit in North Las Vegas on July 16
His statement comes after a new, brutal poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 65 percent of Democrats want Biden to withdraw from the race and allow the party to nominate another candidate.
It also found that only 3 in 10 Democrats have confidence in his mental abilities to serve as president.
The results undermine Biden’s claim that “average Democrats” want him to stay in the race and that only “the elite” want him to withdraw.
Biden has spent the past two weeks holding back the rising tide against him. But the poll, conducted after his disastrous debate with Trump, shows he has failed to win over Democrats.
Schiff is one of 20 Democratic lawmakers who have said so far that Biden should resign, including 19 members of the House of Representatives and Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont.
The flood of concern about the president within his party has subsided somewhat in the past week following an assassination attempt on Trump, but the officials saying it’s time keep coming, slowly but surely.
Meanwhile, Democrats will nominate Biden for re-election through a virtual ballot, but will delay setting a date for the delegate vote after many Democrats raised objections to the planned process.
Co-chair of the party convention’s rules committee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was asked about the roll call Wednesday in Milwaukee. He said it must happen by the 15th of next month, but said it won’t happen before Aug. 1.
The conference will take place from August 19 to 22 in Chicago.
