WASHINGTON (AP) — The turmoil surrounding President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign showed no signs of abating Sunday, with a fifth senator urging him to drop out of the race and let Democrats have an “open process” for a new candidate. The Biden team acknowledged “differing opinions” but said the party would unite to defeat Republican Donald Trump.
West Virginia Independent Senator Joe Manchin, who has considered a run for the White House this year and has often opposed his party’s leadership as a Democrat, was the latest member of Congress to suggest Biden should focus on the remaining months of his presidency, with the 81-year-old incumbent planning to return to the campaign trail this week after quarantining at his Delaware beach house because of a COVID-19 infection.
“It is with a heavy heart that I have come to the decision that I believe it is time to pass the torch to a new generation,” Manchin said in a series of interviews on Sunday news.
Nearly three dozen Democrats in Congress have said it’s time for Biden to drop out of the race. Four Democratic senators – Peter Welch of Vermont, Jon Tester of Montana, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Sherrod Brown of Ohio – have said Biden should drop out.
Biden’s performance in the debate raises questions about his ability to mount a compelling campaign to defeat Trump, but the president’s team has made clear that Biden is determined to win a second term and that the campaign is geared toward winning a close election.
“Unlike Republicans, we are a party that accepts – and even celebrates – dissent, but in the end we will definitely come together to defeat Donald Trump in November,” said Biden campaign spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg.
Manchin expressed confidence that Biden has the ability to fulfill his term in office, but the senator worried about the consequences of a possible election campaign.
“I’m really concerned about the health and well-being of the president,” said Manchin, who became an independent in May after years as a Democrat. He is not seeking re-election to the Senate.
Biden has said he is ready to return to the campaign trail this week and confront a “dark vision” of Trump. Biden has insisted he can defeat Trump in a 2020 rematch and has met with his family and longtime aides to push back against attempts to sideline him.
Still, Manchin said Biden should clear the way for other Democrats and spend the rest of his term as “the president he always wanted to be, able to unite the country, bring it back together” and focus on the war in Gaza and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The result, Manchin said, would mean “being able to show the rest of the world the orderly transition of power from the world’s superpower.”
He also said, “I firmly believe the Democratic Party needs an open process” to select a new candidate. Manchin said he is not interested in replacing Vice President Kamala Harris. “It’s about healthy competition,” Manchin said.
Manchin, himself a former governor, said: “I think we have a lot of talented judges on the bench, a lot of good people, and I am biased toward governors because a governor cannot afford to be biased. You cannot afford to be strictly partisan because there is no D or R on that pothole or that bridge.”
He mentioned Governors Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who, he said, “did not divide their state. They did not force you to pick a side and demonize the other side. They brought people together. That’s what an open process would do, I think. It would bring more people together in a process that could bring back Democrats like me.”
But the Democratic National Committee’s legislative panel is pushing ahead with plans for a virtual roll call vote before Aug. 7 to nominate the presidential candidate, ahead of the party’s convention in Chicago later this month.
Some of the president’s supporters pushed back on news broadcasts against calls for him to withdraw his candidacy. Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California said Biden has a coalition of supporters that includes African-American women, workers and older people who voted for him in the primaries.
“If he feels bullied, those voters will feel bullied,” Khanna said.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson also warned that an attempt to replace Biden at the top of the list of candidates could face legal difficulties after some 14 million people voted for him in the Democratic primaries across the country.
“It would be wrong and, in my opinion, illegal under the rules of some of these states for a handful of people to go into a back room and change the candidate because they no longer like the candidate. That’s not how it should work,” he said.
Manchin appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union,” ABC’s “This Week” and CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Khanna was on ABC and Johnson was on ABC and CNN.
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Superville reported from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
