Another House Democrat Calls on Biden to Withdraw

Democrat governors might be standing with President Biden, but another House Democrat is calling on him to resign. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona became the second Democrat lawmaker to do so publicly, after Lloyd Doggett, who spoke out Tuesday on Biden's questionable debate performance. "What he needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for keeping that seat—and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race," Grijalva, an 11-term congressman, told the New York Times Wednesday, calling the state of Biden's reelection campaign "precarious."

He said Biden is a "good man," and that he would support him if he chooses to remain in the race, but that Donald Trump is an "anti-democratic, authoritarian despot" and it's "very, very dangerous" to give him a chance at a second term. "I think that this is an opportunity to look elsewhere," he said, mentioning Vice President Kamala Harris as one possibility to replace Biden as the Democrat candidate. Biden told campaign staff Wednesday that he has no plans to withdraw, USA Today reports. However, in what the New York Times calls the first sign that Biden himself has serious doubts about whether he can recover post-debate, sources say the president has told key allies he knows he has just days to salvage his candidacy. The White House quickly denounced the article as "absolutely false," Reuters reports. (More Election 2024 stories.)