Second Democratic Congress member declares no confidence in Biden’s 2024 candidacy, says Trump ‘is going to win’
As of Tuesday afternoon, just one sitting Congressional Democrat — Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas — had called on Biden to bow out of the race, and another — Rep. Jared Golden of Maine — suggested it did not matter since it “has been clear … for months … Donald Trump is going to win.”
Golden (D-Me.) wrote in an op-ed for the Bangor Daily News that the 81-year-old president’s “poor performance” in his debate last week against Donald Trump “was not a surprise” but demurred about whether Biden should actually step aside and allow another Democrat to top the ticket, dismissing it as “post-debate hand-wringing.”
“Biden’s poor performance in the debate was not a surprise,” Golden wrote. “It also didn’t rattle me as it has others, because the outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m OK with that.”
According to a CNN/SSRS poll released on Tuesday, 75% of registered voters after the disastrous debate say the Democratic Party has a better shot at keeping the White House if Biden steps down.
Notably, 56% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents who were surveyed agreed with that.
“There are winners and losers in every election,” Golden went on. “Democrats’ post-debate hand-wringing is based on the idea that a Trump victory is not just a political loss, but a unique threat to our democracy.”
“I reject the premise,” Golden said in a shot across the bow to the president’s re-election campaign messaging. “Unlike Biden and many others, I refuse to participate in a campaign to scare voters with the idea that Trump will end our democratic system.”
The co-chair of the moderate House Blue Dog Coalition also rejected any “pearl-clutching” from Democrats over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
What to know about the fallout from President Biden's debate performance:
- President Biden’s poor performance in the first 2024 presidential debate has left even some Democrats unsure of his fitness for office and future as the party’s candidate.
- Former President Obama admitted that Biden had a “bad” debate, while his rival former President Trump suggested that he was in a “trance” and “choked.”
- Biden told a crowd at a North Carolina rally the day after the debate that he doesn’t “debate as well as I used to” — but insisted that he can still “do this job.”
- The New York Times editorial board called on the president to serve the country by dropping out of the race. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a similar editorial a day later.
- Biden gathered with his family to assess the campaign’s future at Camp David, with his son Hunter reportedly pushing for him to stay in the race. Family members questioned if the president’s top advisors should be fired after the disastrous debate.
- Legendary journalist Carl Bernstein revealed that sources close to Biden have witnessed as many as 20 episodes of cognitive decline in the past year.
- Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) became the first House Democrat to call on Biden to drop out.
“This election is about the economy, not democracy,” Golden insisted. “And when it comes to our economy, our Congress matters far more than who occupies the White House.”
Golden represents Maine’s rural 2nd Congressional District, which Trump carried in both the 2016 and 2020 elections — and opposed efforts by his state’s secretary of state earlier this year to deny the former president access to the 2024 ballot.
He has also not shied away from criticizing Biden or his administration for abandoning successful Trump-era border policies or stifling his state’s flagship lobster business with heavy-handed environmental regulations.
- Watch Biden’s worst moments during the presidential debate
- Who could replace Joe Biden after disastrous presidential debate?
- Democrats panicked at Biden’s debate debacle — and aren’t fooling anyone as they now pretend everything’s fine
- Trump inches ahead of Biden nationally after prez’s disastrous debate: new poll
Biden campaign working overtime to ‘minimize’ concern after disastrous debate, hold hastily arranged DNC call- Biden admits, ‘I know I’m not a young man in new battleground state ad after debate disaster
“Some of Congress’ best work in recent years has happened in spite of the president, not because of him,” Golden jabbed at Biden in his op-ed, thanking “responsible Democrats, including myself and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, [who] rejected Biden’s bloated ‘Build Back Better’ bill and instead passed a law that supercharged American energy production, saved Medicare billions of dollars and reduced the deficit.”
“It was Congress that wrote and passed the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act to bring back manufacturing so we can once again be a nation of producers, not just consumers,” he also said, further denying Biden’s involvement in two of his administration’s signature legislative wins.
“We don’t need party insiders in smoke-filled back rooms to save us. We can defend our democracy without them,” Golden concluded.
“This Independence Day, we should reflect on the history and strength of our great democracy, safe in the knowledge that no one man is strong enough to take it away from us.”