The first domino fell Tuesday. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) called for President Joe Biden to step down from his campaign for reelection to the White House.
Doggett’s announcement followed a horrendous debate performance from Biden universally panned by media and voters.
Few Democrat elected officials have rushed to Biden’s defense, but Doggett is the first to officially announce Biden should step aside.
“For more than a year, many Americans have indicated dissatisfaction with their choices in this election,” Doggett said in a press release. “President Biden has continued to run substantially behind Democratic senators in key states and in most polls has trailed Donald Trump.”
He continued, “I had hoped that the debate would provide some momentum to change that. It did not. Instead of reassuring voters, the President failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies.”
Doggett commended Biden for his long public service, but he pressed forward with his criticism of Biden’s ability to campaign effectively over the past year.
“Our overriding consideration must be who has the best hope of saving our democracy from an authoritarian takeover by a criminal and his gang,” he said. “Too much is at stake to risk a Trump victory – too great a risk to assume that what could not be turned around in a year, what was not turned around in the debate, can be turned around now.”
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Doggett went on with a personal plea to Biden.
“I represent the heart of a congressional district once represented by Lyndon Johnson,” he wrote. “Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw. President Biden should do the same.”
The Texas Congressman referenced Biden’s promise to be “transitional,” continuing, “[Biden] has the opportunity to encourage a new generation of leaders from whom a nominee can be chosen to unite our country through an open, democratic process.”
Doggett closed saying he did not come to his decision lightly, but that “President Biden’s first commitment has always been to our country, not himself,” and he is “hopeful that [Biden] will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so.”
Voters are clearly concerned about Biden’s ability to serve as president. As Breitbart News noted, “Seventy-two percent of registered voters believe President Joe Biden does not have the ‘mental’ and ‘cognitive health’ to serve as president, a CBS News/YouGov poll found Tuesday, up seven points after the debate.”
Notably, Doggett did not call for Biden to resign from the presidency.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.