Adam Schiff calls for Joe Biden to step aside in US election race

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California congressman Adam Schiff has called on Joe Biden to “pass the torch” and drop out of the 2024 race for the White House, becoming the latest influential Democratic lawmaker to urge the president to suspend his re-election campaign.

Schiff, a close ally to former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and a prominent critic of Donald Trump, made the intervention in a statement to the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, citing “serious concerns” about whether Biden can defeat Trump in November.

Schiff, who is running for the US Senate, is the latest senior Democrat to call on Biden to abandon his re-election bid after a disastrous debate performance last month that cast serious doubt on the 81-year-old president’s fitness for office.

The debate sparked panic among Democratic lawmakers, influential donors and party operatives who fear Biden will be unable to beat Trump at the ballot box, or serve another four years in the White House.

Biden trails Trump in nearly all national and swing state polls. A new Associated Press poll published on Wednesday found that nearly two-thirds of Democratic voters want him to step aside.

However, many Democratic lawmakers have been reluctant to go public with their fears. A relatively small number — roughly 20 members of Congress to date — have said openly that they want Biden to step aside, although many more have privately expressed concerns and tried to pressure the president behind the scenes.

But Schiff’s intervention could signal a change of approach. A senior lawmaker on Capitol Hill who has been a member of Congress for almost three decades, his comments could encourage others to go public with their concerns.

He is also the first lawmaker to call for Biden to step aside since the attempted assassination of Trump last weekend. The shooting at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday led to a brief suspension in campaigning from both sides, and also appeared to tamp down Democratic infighting over the party’s ticket.

Schiff on Wednesday called Biden “one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history”, but added: “Our nation is at a crossroads.”

The congressman added that the “choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone”, but that he believed it was time for the president “to pass the torch” and “secure his legacy of leadership” by allowing another Democrat to be the party’s nominee for the White House.

Schiff’s intervention comes as the Democratic National Committee and Biden allies press ahead with plans to officially select the president as the party’s 2024 White House nominee in a virtual vote in early August, pre-empting the Democratic National Convention later in the month.

Critics from within the party have accused the DNC of “stifling debate and prematurely shutting down any possible change in the Democratic ticket”.

Some party operatives had called for the virtual vote to happen even sooner and as early as next week. But top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House leader, were among those who pushed for a delay until next month, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

Biden has repeatedly rebuffed calls for him to suspend his re-election campaign. He was scheduled to speak at a conference of Latino leaders in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon.

A Biden campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Schiff’s comments.