Two elected Democrats in Pennsylvania held their silence on Monday when asked whether President Joe Biden should step aside in favor of another candidate in the wake of his poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump last month.
Representative Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA-06) and Representative Summer Lee (D-PA-12) both declined to comment on Biden’s candidacy when questioned by The Philadelphia Inquirer on Monday. The previous day their colleague, Representative Susan Wild (D-PA-07), confirmed she expressed concerns about the president to Democratic leadership in the U.S. House.
“I’m still thinking it through,” Houlahan told the outlet, which similarly reported that Lee “declined to comment on Biden’s candidacy.”
Wild went further on Monday, when she confirmed in a statement to 6 ABC that she participated in a phone call, where CNN reported several House Democrats told House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-08) that Biden needs to step down.
Following that report, Wild reportedly stated that she “expressed the same concerns that Americans across the country are grappling with, about President Biden’s electability at the top of the ticket.”
Wild, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 2018, pledged in her statement that she would continue “to have these important conversations while keeping the best interests of my constituents at the forefront of every decision and statement I make.”
In contrast to Pennsylvania’s delegation to the U.S. House, both Senators John Fetterman (D-PA) and Bob Casey (D-PA) have continued to support Biden, even as Casey prepares to face Republican Senate nominee Dave McCormick in November.
Both in campaign advertisements and interviews, McCormick has stressed remarks by Biden and Casey about their close friendship and last week claimed Casey helped Democrats orchestrate a “conspiracy of silence” to protect the 81-year-old president’s public image.
McCormick also called for members of the Biden administration to weigh their “responsibility” to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office if he cannot fulfill his duties.
A poll released Monday, which was conducted after the first presidential debate, found Biden now trails Trump by 5 percent in Pennsylvania, with the pollsters finding the former president has the support of 48 percent of the Keystone State’s voters.
That poll was commissioned by Democrats for the Next Generation, a political group that appears to present alternatives to Biden while stopping short of explicitly calling for the president to step aside.
As that group released its poll, Democratic activists launched a petition effort titled “Pass the Torch” on Monday. That effort explicitly calls for Biden to drop out of the race in favor of another candidate.
– – –
Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
