CBS host Margaret Brennan pressed Biden-Harris campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond over the growing list of Democratic lawmakers no longer supporting President Joe Biden as the party’s nominee.
Richmond appeared Sunday morning on “Face the Nation” to discuss the president’s ongoing reelection bid despite concerns from inside the party. During the interview Brennan called out the “dominant conversation” for the campaign, saying it was not about issues, but instead centered on lawmakers asking the president to step aside. (RELATED: ‘Pass The Torch’: More House Democrats Urge Biden To Drop Out)
“You were just talking about how members of your own party are continuing to come out against the party’s nominee. This is the dominant conversation right now. Not all the messages that you would like to have front and center, issue wise,” Brennan said. “How much time do you have here, before it really starts hurting Joe Biden that fellow Democrats are denigrating him? When do you think he can actually persuade his party?”
“The President is going to run his campaign. He’s not trying to persuade his party,” Richmond pushed back. “He’s trying to persuade the voters that he will wake up every day fighting for them, and that the guy on the other side, who’s unhinged and who only thinks about himself, is going to continue to divide this country and sell out working class and working families to the billionaire class,” Richmond said.
Richmond continued to state that while lawmakers “ponder and continue to talk,” the president’s campaign will be addressing the “issues in this race,” noting he has heard the “concerns” from fellow Democratic lawmakers.
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“The president believes he is the best person to beat Donald Trump. I agree with him. And by the way, he’s not — Donald Trump has run in three Republican primaries and beat dozens of candidates. Nobody beat him,” Richmond said.
“He won the presidency and Joe Biden is the only person in the history of the United States to beat Donald Trump. And he’s in the best position to do it again. So much is at stake,” Richmond continued. “We should really focus on what’s at stake. The character of the two people, the record accomplishments of this past administration, and we should go knock doors and we should go tell it on a mountain. That this race is important and Joe Biden is the person to beat Donald Trump.”
Worries over both low poll numbers and Biden’s mental fitness have grown rapidly since the president was seen struggling to finish his sentences, and at one point freezing mid-statement, on the debate stage against former President Donald Trump. Since that June 27 debate, over a dozen Congressional Democrats and a handful of Democratic senators have publicly voiced their concerns about Biden remaining as the party’s nominee.
Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana were among the latest party members to ask Biden to step aside from the campaign on Friday, and Independent West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin — who caucuses with Democrats — also joined the list on Sunday.
In a recent AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey conducted July 11-15, 7 in 10 adults, including 65% of Democrats, no longer support Biden as the party’s presidential nominee. The percentage of Democrats dissatisfied with Biden jumped roughly ten points, from 38% before the June debate to 48% in the most recent AP-NORC poll.
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