House Democrat slams colleagues for ‘self-destructive’ panic over Biden

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) is warning his House colleagues against openly casting doubt on the strength of President Joe Biden’s reelection bid, calling it “deeply self-destructive” if he ends up remaining the Democratic nominee.

Torres, who represents the New York borough of the Bronx, issued the reproach on Monday as some of his fellow Democrats speak out publicly and anonymously to the media in the aftermath of Biden’s disastrous debate.

“Regardless of where one stands on the question of President Biden’s political future, the intra-party mixed messaging strikes me as deeply self-destructive,” Torres said in a statement, released just as lawmakers return from the July 4th recess. “Those publicly calling on President Biden to withdraw should ask themselves a simple question: what if the President becomes the Democratic nominee?”

Torres’s statement echoed a letter Biden sent his colleagues that morning in which he reiterated he will not step aside.

House Democratic leaders have already begun to discuss with their members how to move forward, including a Sunday afternoon phone call in which several Democrats made the case for Biden to stand down, according to multiple reports. Those who want Biden to withdraw as the Democratic nominee now include senior members of the party, such as Reps. Joe Morelle (D-NY), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Adam Smith (D-WA), and Mark Takano (D-CA).

Notably, Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, expressed support for Biden on Monday.

“The drip, drip, drip of public statements of no confidence only serve to weaken a President who has been weakened not only by the debate but also by the debate about the debate,” Torres added. “Weakening a weakened nominee seems like a losing strategy for a presidential election. The piling-on is not so much solving a problem as much as it is creating and compounding one.”

“The process by which we decide how to move forward matters as much as the decision itself,” the New York congressman said.

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House and Senate Democrats plan to huddle in their weekly caucus meetings on Tuesday. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) had also been encouraging Senate Democrats to meet to discuss the path forward, but the separate meeting has been scrapped for now.