New York Rep. Pat Ryan is eighth House Dem to say Biden should end campaign
Upstate Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan joined calls Wednesday for President Biden to end his re-election bid, saying he’d be doing a “grave disservice” by claiming the 81-year-old is the best person to take on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“For the good of our country, for my two young kids, I’m asking Joe Biden to step aside in the upcoming election and deliver on the promise to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders,” Ryan (D-NY), 42, who represents the area around Poughkeepsie, told the New York Times in a phone interview.
“I really hope, with all my heart, that he will listen.”
Ryan is widely regarded as one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for re-election this cycle, having won his Orange County-based in 2022 by 1.3% of the vote.
Echoing the sentiment of other Democrats who have broken with Biden, Ryan stressed that he views Trump, 78, as an “existential threat” to the country.
“I really think this would go down in history at or near what George Washington did in terms of stepping aside for the good of the country,” he added to the New York Times. “It would be such a stark contrast to the selfishness of Trump.”
Wednesday afternoon, New York Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado also called on Biden to leave the race.
“I have immense respect and admiration for his deep and abiding commitment to the American people and our founding democratic ideals,” Delgado said in a statement. “He can add to his legacy, showing his strength and grace, by ending his campaign and making room for a new leader.”
Eight House Democrats have publicly called on Biden to step aside following his disastrous June 27 debate performance, with Ryan joining Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Raul Grijalva of Arizona, Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Mike Quigley of Illinois, Angie Craig of Minnesota, Adam Smith of Washington and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey.
But Biden has brushed aside those pleas, insisting in a letter to congressional Democrats Monday that he is “firmly committed” to serving as the party nominee for president.
South Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres, who on Monday decried “intra-party mixed messaging” on Biden as “deeply destructive,” called Wednesday for a “serious reckoning with the down-ballot effect of whomever we nominate.”
“If we’re going to choose a particular path, we should be clear-eyed about its consequences,” Torres added. “Blindness is not bliss amid the terrifying threat of a Trump presidency.”
“If we are going on a political suicide mission, then we should at least be honest about it,” he added to CNN.
House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerry Nadler (D-NY) took the opposite path — reportedly suggesting over the weekend that Biden should pass the torch before publicly backing the president on Tuesday.
“At this point, he’s the best candidate — he’s the only candidate,” the Manhattan lawmaker told reporters.
Biden has claimed that he was “exhausted” during the debate, maintained that he wouldn’t be running if he didn’t believe with all his “heart and soul” that he could do the job, and dared dismayed Democrats to challenge him at the convention.
“I’m getting so frustrated by the elites … in the party,” Biden vented on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Monday. “With any of these guys who don’t think I should run — run against me. Go ahead, announce for president. Challenge me at the convention.”
Ryan took issue with the president’s notion, telling the Times that people who want Biden to step aside “are the opposite of elites.”
“These are people eating hot dogs and drinking beer and talking about my Yankees and where the country’s at and expressing some pretty deep and weighty things,” he said.
The National Republican Congressional Committee needled Ryan in a statement responding to his comments.
“Everyone can see Ryan’s statement for what it truly is, a transparent election-year ploy to try to cling to his seat,” NRCC Spokeswoman Savannah Viar said in a statement.
“President Biden is sitting in the Oval Office because Pat Ryan and Democrats hid the truth from voters and lied about the president’s condition. Pat Ryan must answer the question: Is Joe Biden fit to serve as President?”
To replace Biden, Ryan suggested that the party use an open process that could include Vice President Kamala Harris, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
Some within the party have recoiled at the suggestion of a so-called “mini-primary” and contended that the nomination should automatically pass to Harris as the sitting vice president.
Biden is slated to be formally crowned as the Democrats’ standard bearer in a virtual roll call over the coming weeks, ahead of the party’s convention in Chicago next month.
