As concerns escalate over President Joe Biden’s age and potential inability to complete a second term, several Democrats have begun to capitalize on this sentiment by fundraising off of fears about the president’s fitness for office. One such example is Rep. Josh Harder (D-CA), who circulated an email to his California constituents on Friday admitting that “we obviously all know what’s happening at the top of the ticket with Biden” and expressing doubts about the impact on down-ballot races.
Harder claimed that the situation has him “worrying about what it means for toss-up races like ours” and acknowledged that the House would be the last line of defense against a potential President Donald Trump if Biden were to exit the race. He then extended an appeal to his supporters, citing polls that show his district, which is currently tied, might be in danger of a Democratic loss.
In a somewhat similar move, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) sent text messages to Pennsylvania Democrats on Thursday referring to a New York Times opinion piece arguing that Biden should step down. Fetterman assured his recipients that he would “never stop fighting against ^^^ this garbage,” seemingly defying the notion that Biden should remove himself from the presidential race.
Moreover, numerous other Democrats have publicly called on Biden to withdraw from the running, including Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO), Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-IL), Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA), Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ), Rep. Ed Case (D-HI), Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI), Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Rep. Pat Ryan (D-OR), as well as dozens more.
Despite being questioned by reporters at a press conference during the NATO Summit earlier this week, Biden provided lengthy responses on various topics, although he notably mixed up Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s name with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as referred to former President Trump as his “Vice President Trump.”
