Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a stalwart supporter of President Joe Biden, admitted Sunday that there are talks among Democrats on “whether he’s the candidate or whether he isn’t the candidate” after a poor performance against former President Donald Trump in the first presidential debate.
Raskin’s comments are a major departure from what most ranking Democratic lawmakers have said publicly in defense of the president, as most have at least acknowledged Biden had a “bad” debate, while stopping short of calling him to drop out of the presidential race.
“We’re having a serious conversation about what to do,” Raskin said in an interview with MSNBC’s Ali Velsh.
“One thing I can tell you is that regardless of what President Biden decides, our party is going to be unified, and our party also needs him at the very center of our deliberations in our campaign, and so whether he’s the candidate or someone else is the candidate,” Raskin added.
Earlier this year, the Maryland representative talked down against Biden’s naysayers who raised questions about his mental acuity when special counsel Robert Hur’s nearly 400-page report regarding his decision not to prosecute Biden criminally described him as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
“All these age-based cheap shots at President Biden show you how desperate they are, while Donald Trump is fumbling around every day,” Raskin said back in February.
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Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told MSNBC on Sunday that he believed in Biden’s commitment to have a “comeback” after the poor debate performance.
“I’ve been very clear that it was an underwhelming performance on Thursday, during the debate, as President Biden and his campaign have acknowledged. It certainly was a setback. But of course, I believe a setback is nothing more than a setup for a comeback,” Jeffries said.
