Himes explains his call for Biden to step aside; Lamont 'simpatico' with congressman
Rep. Jim Himes's choice to call for President Joe Biden to step aside and let someone else run against Donald Trump wasn't merely a response to Biden's poor performance at a recent debate, Himes said Friday.
"I've been concerned for a long time by the trajectory of this race," Himes told reporters at an event in Stamford. "For me, it wasn't the debate performance, which we all saw and which none of us will ever unsee. It was a trend, a trajectory."
Himes, a Democrat representing Connecticut's 4th Congressional District, released a statement Thursday night following Biden's news conference from the NATO summit, calling for his fellow Democrat to "step away from the presidential campaign" and "make way for a new generation of leaders."
During the news conference, Biden mistakenly referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as "Vice President Trump" — shortly after introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as "President Putin." Critics cited the errors as evidence Biden should step down, while the president's defenders noted his detailed answers to foreign policy questions.
Himes joins about 20 other Democrats in Congress who have publicly asked Biden to bow out of the presidential race in favor of another Democrat. Numerous other top lawmakers, as well as key donors, have also expressed concerns about Biden's standing, and recent polls suggest more than half of Democratic voters want the president to withdraw.
At an event in New Haven on Friday, Gov. Ned Lamont described his view as "simpatico" with Himes's.
"I think we've come to the same conclusion," Lamont said, declining to elaborate further.
Lamont previously expressed concern that questions around Biden's mental fitness distract from attention on Trump's "moral fitness," arguing that "you don't win elections by playing defense."
Himes emphasized Friday he's far from alone in asking Biden to step aside.
"I'm not some outlier here," Himes said. "The majority of Americans are very concerned about whether Joe Biden, for all his remarkable achievements, can prosecute the existential race against Donald Trump."
Himes praised Biden for accomplishments including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and large investments in addressing climate change but questioned whether he would be able to communicate those victories on the campaign trail. Currently, polls show Biden trailing Trump nationally and in key swing states.
"We have to ask ourselves whether the trajectory is going to change," Himes said. "Maybe it won't be as bad as the debate, but for the next four months, will he be the very best mouthpiece for that incredible record and for the urgency of what needs to be done? I don't think so."
Though concerns about Biden's age have percolated for years, they have exploded over the past two weeks, since the president struggled to articulate himself in a late-June debate with Trump. Some who favor replacing Biden advocate nominating Vice President Kamala Harris instead, while others suggest choosing among several candidates at the Democratic National Convention in August.
In an interview Monday on MSNBC, Sen. Chris Murphy called on Biden to do more public events and interviews to show the debate was an anomaly.
"It is just true that people have questions having watched his performance (at the debate)," Murphy said. "People want to be with him, they want to support him, but they want to see him out in setting that show he is still the old Joe Biden."
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, meanwhile, has said he wants "more of the kind of analytics that show the path to success."
Spokespeople for both Murphy and Blumenthal declined to comment Friday, instead referring back to the senators' previous comments.
CT Insider reached out Friday to more than a half dozen of Connecticut's convention delegates, including many top state officials, but received little response. Elizabeth Benton, a spokesperson for Attorney General William Tong, said Friday that Tong is "focused on doing his job for the people of Connecticut."
"But let's be clear — there is one man here who is dangerously and unequivocally unfit for office," she said. "And that's Donald Trump."
Spokespeople for other statewide Democrats, including the lieutenant governor, secretary of the state, treasurer and comptroller, did not provide comment Friday.
Nancy DiNardo, chair of Connecticut's Democratic Party and a delegate to the convention, said Friday afternoon she disagrees with Himes, Lamont and others who want Biden to step down as candidate. She praised Biden's leadership and said she worried that an open convention would throw the party into chaos.
"I still support him," DiNardo said of the president. "It's his decision to make if he's not going to run."
Gemeem Davis, who runs the Bridgeport Generation Now Votes organization and is the city's lone convention delegate," also said she was disappointed in Himes's stance.
"I think Jim Himes is wrong," Davis said Friday. "The longer the electeds in our party make this about Joe Biden and really about themselves and not about the voters and the people in the United States, we are putting ourselves in danger."
The election, Davis said, should instead be "a referendum on Donald Trump and his fitness for office."
Himes said Friday he'd like to see an open convention that would allow Democrats to choose a candidate collectively — and to tout their achievements for a national audience.
"We shouldn't be afraid of what we what we purport to defend, which is a democratic process — delegates coming together and deciding," he said. "The eyes of the world would be on us as we made a generational shift. I think that would be a spectacular week."
Still, Himes emphasized that the decision whether to leave the race rests with Biden alone and said he's not asking pledged delegates to vote against the president at the convention.
"I'm not trying to influence anybody in my party other than the President of the United States," he said.
Staff writers Brian Zahn and Brian Lockhart contributed to this report.
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