Third House Democrat says Biden should bow out of presidential race

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) on Thursday became the third House Democrat to publicly call on President Biden to step out of the presidential race after a weak debate performance last week that left his allies shaken.

“President Biden has done enormous service to our country, but now is the time for him to follow in one of our founding father, George Washington's, footsteps and step aside to let new leaders rise up and run against [former President Trump]," Moulton said on Boston-area radio station WBUR Thursday. 

Moulton, who competed against Biden for the 2020 presidential nomination, had said Wednesday that his party should look into “all viable options,” as questions swirl around Biden being able to remain at the top of the Democratic ticket.

“When your current strategy isn’t working, it’s rarely the right decision to double down. President Biden is not going to get younger,” Moulton said in a statement Wednesday.

The White House was insistent on Wednesday that Biden is not leaving the presidential race, and party leaders have publicly backed him. Biden said in a fundraising email Wednesday that nobody “is pushing” him “out” of the race.

“I’m the Democratic Party’s nominee,” the fundraising email reads. “No one is pushing me out. I’m not leaving, I’m in this race to the end, and WE are going to win this election. If that’s all you need to hear, pitch in a few bucks to help [Vice President Harris] and me defeat Donald Trump in November.”

Still, cracks began to emerge this week in Democrats' support for Biden. Centrist Democratic Reps. Jared Golden (Maine) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.) have both said they believe Trump will beat Biden in November. And several Democrats privately told The Hill that conversations about Biden’s standing at the top of the ticket have been underway behind the scenes since the debate.

Moulton joins his House colleagues Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) in publicly calling on Biden to withdraw from the race. 

“President Biden has continued to run substantially behind Democratic senators in key states and in most polls has trailed Donald Trump. I had hoped that the debate would provide some momentum to change that. It did not,” Doggett said in a statement. “Instead of reassuring voters, the President failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies.”