AP Photo/Evan Vucci
- President Joe Biden faces growing calls to exit the race after his disastrous debate performance.
- He’s due to meet with Democratic governors on Wednesday to try to reassure them of his competence.
- But 25 Democratic House members are ready to call for him to quit, a House Democratic aide said.
President Joe Biden is set to meet with Democratic governors on Wednesday as dozens of House members appear ready to call for him to drop out of the presidential race.
Biden will talk to the governors in virtual meetings and in person at the White House on Wednesday, White House officials said, per Reuters.
Since his disastrous debate performance on June 27, Biden has come under increasing pressure to exit the race.
During the debate with former President Donald Trump, Biden’s performance was at times marked by vacant expressions and incoherent sentences.
Biden’s campaign has offered a series of excuses, citing jet lag, a bad night, and a cold going into the event. But this hasn’t stopped calls for his exit.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democratic sitting member of Congress to publicly urge the president to quit the race on Tuesday.
“Too much is at stake to risk a Trump victory — too great a risk to assume that what could not be turned around in a year, what was not turned around in the debate, can be turned around now,” Doggett said in a statement.
Former Democratic House members, party strategists, and candidates have also issued similar calls, some urging Vice President Kamala Harris to replace Biden on the Democratic ticket.
Former Rep. Tim Ryan said in a social media post on Tuesday that Harris should replace Biden.
He said Harris “has significantly grown into her job, she will destroy Trump in debate, highlight choice issue, energize our base, bring back young voters and give us generational change. It’s time!”
In a video message on Tuesday, Adam Frisch, a Democrat running for Colorado’s 3rd congressional district, said “we deserve better. President Biden should withdraw from this race.”
James Carville, a longtime Democratic strategist, told CNN that the party needs to do “something different.”
“Give the people a shot, let them see who’s in the party, and I believe there’s staggering talent in the Democratic Party,” he said, adding: “Get out of the way and let a thousand flowers bloom.”
Twenty-five Democratic members of the House are now preparing to urge Biden to pull out of the race, a House Democratic aide said, per The Guardian.
In the event that Biden does pull out, several possible replacements could throw their hat in the ring.
Replacing Biden at the top of the ticket just a few months short of the November elections would be a challenge for the party, however.
President Lyndon B. Johnson dropped out of the race in 1968, and his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, entered the Democratic primary but went on to lose the election to former Vice President Richard Nixon.
ABC News said it will air parts of Biden’s first television interview since last week’s presidential debate on Friday at 6:30 p.m. ET on “World News Tonight with David Muir.”