On Wednesday, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. became the latest Democrat to call for President Joe Biden to end his candidacy and exit the presidential race. Schiff is running for former Sen. Diane Feinstein’s seat (Feinstein died on Sept. 29 at age 90, after suffering a stroke).
In a prepared statement, Schiff said it’s time for Biden, 81, to “pass the torch” to a younger candidate to run against Trump, 78: “Joe Biden has been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history, and his lifetime of service as a Senator, a Vice President, and now as President has made our country better. But our nation is at a crossroads. A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.”
Schiff says the Democratic Party might lose more than the race for the presidency if Biden is the candidate at the top of the ticket, adding that Biden’s candidacy might cause the Democrats to lose the Senate as well as the presidency and stop the party from regaining the House of Representatives. Said Schiff: “There is only one singular goal: defeating Donald Trump. The stakes are just too high.”
Schiff is running against former L.A. Dodgers star Steve Garvey, who is the Republican candidate for the Senate seat. While Schiff is a strong favorite to win the Senate race, he said Democrats will “very well lose the Senate and lose our chance to take back the House” if Biden is the party’s presidential candidate: “The choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone,” but added that even if it is Biden, he will support the Democratic Party’s nominee for the presidency.
Biden has secured 3,896 delegates during the prior state primaries and caucus votes and only needs 1,976 to win the Democratic Party nomination. If Biden doesn’t withdraw his candidacy, he has a virtual lock on securing the nomination for a second term in office. In an interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt on Monday, Biden defiantly said ‘he wasn’t going anywhere’ and that he had earned the Democratic nomination, with backing from 14 million primary voters. Asked about his apparent confusion at the June debate with Trump, Biden said his “mental acuity has been pretty damn good.”
The Republican National Convention is currently underway through Thursday in Milwaukee; the Democratic Party is scheduled to start its national convention on Aug. 19 in Chicago.
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