Massachusetts governor urges Biden to consider dropping out of 2024 race

Gov. Maura Healey (D-MA), a close ally to Joe Biden, called on the president to “carefully evaluate” his political future Friday amid growing calls within the party for him to drop out of the election.

“The best way forward right now is a decision for the president to make,” Healey said in a statement. “Over the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump. Whatever president Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump.”

The carefully worded position from the Biden campaign surrogate marked the first Democratic governor to express doubt following an emergency White House meeting this week with the president and 20 Democratic governors.

Healey, in widely reported remarks, told fellow Democratic colleagues during a call this week before the meeting that Biden’s political fate was “irretrievable.”

In her statement, Healey also praised Biden for having “saved our democracy in 2020 and has done an outstanding job over the last four years.”

Healey sits on Biden’s national campaign advisory board and hosted a fundraiser for him in her deep-blue state earlier this year.

Other Democratic governors emerged from the Biden meeting with reassurance about him and stood firm in their support, in contrast to the continued fallout from his debate debacle that raised questions about his mental fitness to serve a second term, at the end of which he would be 86 years old.

A defiant Biden told supporters Friday at a campaign rally that he had no intention of calling it quits.

“I am going to run, and I’m going to win again,” the president said in Madison, Wisconsin.

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He continued: “I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party. You voted for me to be your nominee, no one else. You, the voters, did that. And despite that, some folks don’t seem to care who you voted for. Well, guess what: They’re trying to push me out of the race. Well, let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race.”

A fellow Bay State Democrat, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), became the third sitting representative this week to urge Biden to withdraw.