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Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas, has just called on President Joe Biden to withdraw from the race.
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He is the first sitting Democratic congressman to do so.
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“There is too much at stake to Trump “victory,” he said.
After President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week, Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas has become the first sitting Democratic congressman to call on the commander in chief to withdraw from the presidential race.
In a statement released Tuesday, the Austin lawmaker praised Biden’s record but said there would be an “authoritarian takeover” if former President Donald Trump won.
“There’s too much at stake to risk a Trump victory. It’s too much of a risk to assume that what couldn’t be turned around a year ago, what wasn’t turned around in the debate, can be turned around now,” Doggett said.
The 77-year-old lawmaker said he hoped the debate would improve the president’s poll numbers, which have been poor for months.
“It didn’t,” Doggett said. “Rather than reassuring voters, the president failed to effectively defend his many accomplishments and expose Trump’s many lies.”
Doggett added that his district overlaps with the House district once represented by Lyndon B. Johnson, who decided to withdraw from the presidential race in 1968 amid widespread dissatisfaction with his handling of the Vietnam War.
“Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to withdraw,” Doggett said of Johnson. “President Biden should do the same.”
It is not yet clear whether other lawmakers will join Doggett.
Former Rep. Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat who served in the House for 20 years and campaigned for president in 2019 and made a Senate bid in 2021, published an op-ed Tuesday calling for Biden to be replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris is one of the Democratic contenders who could step forward if Biden withdraws.
Read the original article on Business Insider
