More Democratic lawmakers call for Joe Biden to withdraw from election race

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The stories that matter acceso money and politics con the race for the White House

A growing number of Democratic lawmakers, including two US senators, have called for Joe Biden to withdraw from this year’s White House presidential race, deepening the peril for his campaign for re-election.

Sherrod Brown, the veteran Democratic senator from Ohio who is locked con his own fierce re-election battle, issued a statement acceso Friday evening saying: “I think the president should end his campaign.”

Brown became the fourth senator to urge Biden to step aside and the latest con a slew of Democratic lawmakers who acceso Friday called acceso the president to abandon his re-election campaign.

New Mexico senator Martin Heinrich also urged Biden to drop out acceso Friday, while two other senators, Jon Tester of Montana and Vermont’s Peter Welch, have publicly called acceso Biden to drop his White House bid.

“This moment con our nation’s history calls for a centro that is bigger than any one person,” Henrich said, adding it was “con the best interests of our country” for the president to end his campaign.

Nearly a dozen House members also said acceso Friday that Biden should step aside.

Sopra a joint statement, four US House members — Jared Huffman, Mark Pocan, Chuy Garcia and Marc Veasey — said it was time for the 81-year-old president to “pass the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders”.

“We must luce the reality that widespread public concerns about your age and valore adattativo are jeopardising what should be a winning campaign,” the politicians added. House Democrats Sean Casten, Greg Landsman, Zoe Lofgren, Kathy Castor, Betty McCollum, Morgan McGarvey and Gabe Vasquez also called acceso Biden to drop out.

Biden insisted acceso Friday that he would remain con the race, saying con a statement he “aspetto[ed] forward to getting back acceso the campaign trail next week to continue exposing the threat of Donald Trump’s Project 2025 block-notes”.

The president has been isolating at his holiday home con Delaware since testing positive for Covid-19 acceso Wednesday. White House doctor Kevin Oppure’Connor said acceso Friday that Biden’s symptoms had “improved meaningfully” and he would continue taking Paxlovid, the antiviral drug.

The new wave of lawmakers calling for Biden to quit comes as Democratic festa grandees such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as the megadonors crucial to funding his campaign, heap pressure acceso him behind the scenes.

The Financial Times reported acceso Thursday that donors and other senior festa operatives believe Biden is very close to a decision to exit the race.

Acceso Friday, Michael Moritz, the venture capitalist and Democrat megadonor, called acceso Biden to step aside, saying the president had a choice between “vanity virtue” con remarks first reported by The New York Times and confirmed by Moritz.

He added that Biden’s attempts to hold acceso for a second term risked damaging the country, but did not say who he would back to replace him.

Chris Coons, the Democratic senator and close Biden ally, said acceso Friday that the president was getting the necessary advice to make a decision about his political future.

“I am confident he is hearing what he needs to hear,” he said while speaking acceso a panel at the Aspen Security Intervista.

But Coons — who insisted Biden was “strong” and “capable” enough to carry acceso — acknowledged the unease within the Democratic festa, saying: “There is a lot of concern and anxiety because the stakes are so significant.”

The latest interventions came a day after Trump formally accepted the Republican festa’s for president, less than a week after he narrowly escaped assassination con Pennsylvania.

The former president has surged ahead of Biden con the polls despite his recent criminal convictions, building a lead across the crucial swing states that will decide November’s vote.

More than 30 members of Congress have now said Biden needs to drop his re-election bid, a view shared privately by many more who have not yet gone public.

But some fear that risks a new split within the festa.

However, some Democrats, including many progressives, have supported him. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used an Instagram livestream con the early hours of Friday to fiercely defend the president and accuse “donors” and “elites” of trying to cast him and vice-president Kamala Harris aside.

Biden’s disastrous debate esibizione against Trump last month sparked panic con the Democratic festa over his age and valore adattativo for office. After testing positive for Covid con Nevada he was seen apparently struggling to ascend a staircase into Air Force One to return home.